School Qualifications Research Articles

Educational assessment center techniques for entrance selection in medical school.

Dutch higher education is freely accessible for those who have proper high school qualifications. However, admission to medical schools has been limited by government to regulate manpower planning. Selection has been carried out by a national lottery approach since 1972, but in 2000, the Dutch government asked medical schools to experiment with qualitative selection procedures at their own institutions. The University Medical Center Utrecht School of Medical Sciences has used a technique derived from assessment-center approaches to assist in the medical school admission process. Dutch assessment centers use observation procedures in which candidates act in simulated activities that are characteristic of the vacant position. In April 2001, 61 candidates for 23 places were invited for selection days. After a selection interview, candidates were asked to perform activities that are characteristic of course requirements: (1) studying a three-to-five page text about diagnostic and therapeutic procedures of disease A during one hour; (2) explaining the studied procedures to another candidate and receiving information about disease B, studied by this other candidate, during one hour; (3) answering the questions of a standardized patient about disease A in 15 minutes; and (4) answering the questions of a standardized patient about disease B in 15 minutes. A three-person selection committee behind a one-way screen observed the two 15-minute interviews with the standardized patients. The selection committee independently scored content quality of the information that was given to the standardized patients as well as the quality of attitude towards and communication with both patients. The average scores for these three criteria were weighted equally to arrive at a total score. In addition, each candidate received a score resulting from the interview with the other candidate who explained disease B. This score was combined with the other three to a final score. The Utrecht medical curriculum may be viewed as a hybrid PBL program. Integration of basic and clinical sciences, patient contacts from the start, training of skills in communication with standardized patients, physical examination, extensive small-group teaching, structured independent studying, and collaboration to prepare for short presentations to peers were all characteristic of the medical school curriculum. Thus, the assessment-center technique reflected the characteristics of the medical school curriculum. First analyses showed satisfactory reliabilities of the three scores (0.79 to 0.92); the average agreement between raters was 0.60. Correlation analysis between scores supported the internal convergent and discriminant validity of the assessment activities. The predictive validity remains to be studied.

Personal and situational influences on drink driving and sober driving among a cohort of young adults

Objectives: To compare personal and situational influences on incidents involving drink driving with those involving sober driving. Methods: Information on a range of road safety practices was sought in face...

Vocational training in small firms in Germany: the contribution of the craft sector

One of the traits which distinguish the German dual system of vocational education and training (VET) from most training systems in the world is the voluntary contribution of companies towards it, in both practical and financial terms. Obviously, the craft sector is a training segment within the dual system where the importance of practical experience is more strongly emphasised than the systematic approach underlying all modern training schemes. However, the overall supply of training placements in the German system decreased during the 1990s. Although the crafts have fared comparatively well, this tendency is now starting to also affect the sector. Being a sector with seemingly less attractive job prospects in small businesses and a comparatively low net cost per apprenticeship, the crafts face problems in terms of social selection as well as challenges with respect to the modernisation of training contents and instruction methods. The crafts are a sector with predominantly male participation and mainly absorb school leavers with lower secondary school qualifications. In this context, one of the questions for the Dual System and its uniform training practices might be whether the rapidly expanding services sector, with similar “small‐business” features, will be able or willing to follow the “training philosophy” that originated in the craft sector – and which is still seen as the “backbone” of the German Dual System of training.

Teaching musical technology at the University of Edinburgh

The teaching of musical technology at the University of Edinburgh dates from the appointment of John Donaldson as Professor of Music in 1845. One of the courses which he offered was on ‘‘The Structure, Compass and Properties of Musical Instruments,’’ the stated objective being ‘‘to discover the true principles on which musical instruments ought to be constructed, and which may lead, and have led, to the invention of new ones.’’ To this end he created a music classroom well equipped with acoustical apparatus and demonstration instruments. Out of Donaldson’s pioneering work developed a long-standing cooperation between the Faculty of Music and the Department of Natural Philosophy (later Physics and Astronomy) at Edinburgh. Currently two Honors Degree programs with a strong emphasis on musical technology are offered. One is a Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Technology; the other is a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics with Music. Both programs include courses in introductory musical acoustics, acoustics of musical instruments, analysis and synthesis of sound, and practical music technology. The B.Sc. requires an advanced school qualification in physics and mathematics, but no music; the B.Mus. requires an advanced school music qualification, but less advanced scientific background.

Population-based health monitoring via computer-assisted telephone interviews in Bavaria

From June 1999 until May 2000, 2051 computer-assisted telephone interviews concerning health and health related behaviours were assessed in Bavarian households. The aim of the study was the evaluation of the validity and representativity of this data by a comparison of selected variables from the Bavarian Mikrozensus-survey 1999. The distribution patterns of the marital status, the size of the households, the gainful employment, the household-netto-income, the school qualification and of the smoking status correspond well with those of the Mikrozensus 1999. As often found in questionnaire based surveys, a disproportionately high rate of participation of highly educated persons was observed. This led to an effect only in terms of a too small rate of persons with a low household-netto-income. Within the study, two different designs were compared. The commitment of the telephone numbers to a gender for an equal quotation of men and women led to an under-representation of single-households and therefore also of unmarried persons, but it had no effect on the other characteristics. The results of this study show, that the method of computer assisted-telephone interviews is a valid and cheap basis for the establishment of an exhaustive health surveillance system in Germany.

The value of qualifications in the modern information world

The value of qualifications for information professionals operating in the modern information world is considered, pointing out that, with the growth in interest in knowledge management, skills such as thesaurus construction, abstracting and indexing have actually come back into vogue. The fact that the information world is developing rapidly and attracting increasing numbers of people, many of whom have had no formal information training is used as the focus for discussion of the issues involved. Since the relevance and value of a library school qualification have been brought into question an attempt is made to establish the potential value of this qualification and explain why qualified professionals are the most eligible candidates to continue the maturation of the information profession in the twenty-first century. It is concluded that the information profession, like most professions, has room for a whole spectrum of people with different qualifications and skills. However, the distinguishing factor is the necessity to recognize librarianship and information work as a profession.

Overeducation and Skill Endowments: The Role of School Achievement and Vocational Training Quality

Thurow's job-competition model implies that overeducation is contingent upon the differing skill endowments of employees. As yet, only rudimentary evidence has been furnished to confirm this relationship. In the present paper, we test the theory in a more sophisticated manner, by means of a more differentiated survey of the skill endowments of workers. Our analyses are based on the German Life History Study (GLHS), in which longitudinal biographical data was gathered for the West German cohorts born in 1964 and 1971 up until the year of the survey (1998). These data are analyzed using a trivariate probit model which takes into account the selective acquisition of school qualifications, and the selective choice of vocational training with varying levels of quality. Our findings confirm that type and grade of school leaving certificate both have a strong effect on the later risk of overeducation. The quality of the vocational training chosen only impacts on the overeducation risk when the strong selectivity effects in certain types of schools and types of vocational training are not taken into account. In line with existing literature, we find that the risk of overeducation decreases with increasing traditional skill measures such as experience, tenure, on-the-job-training, and further education. In sum, our results clearly confirm the capacity of the job-competition model to explain the persistence of overeducation in the labor market.

Curriculum and Assessment Policy in New Zealand: Ten years of reforms

Since the administrative restructuring of 1989, major curriculum and assessment reforms affecting primary and secondary schools have taken place in New Zealand. These reforms had political and educational origins, and were influenced both by local and overseas developments, in particular from the United Kingdom and to a lesser extent Australia. Three aspects of the reforms are analysed: curriculum changes, the introduction of new assessment programmes and changes in qualifications in the senior secondary school. The paper examines some of the issues raised by the reforms, and looks forward to the challenges of the next decade suggested by recent international developments in curriculum and assessment.

Very low birthweight and asthma by age seven years in a national cohort.

Several studies have suggested that very low birthweight (VLBW < 1500 g) is associated with increased rates of respiratory problems in childhood and that the presence of chronic lung disease further increases the risk. We aimed to assess rates of asthma at 7-8 years of age in a national cohort of VLBW infants born in 1986 and for whom perinatal data were available. Two hundred ninety-nine former VLBW children (96% of surviving children living in New Zealand) were assessed at a home visit. Parents were asked a comprehensive questionnaire, including three questions aimed at assessing morbidity from asthma: 1) was the child diagnosed as having asthma before age 7 years; 2) was the child still experiencing asthma at the age of 7 years; and 3) was the child prescribed daily medication for asthma at the age of 7 years. Overall, 50% of the cohort had been diagnosed with asthma before age 7, compared with 27% of a sample of New Zealand children assessed contemporaneously in an international study; 32% had asthma at age 7, and 11% were taking daily medication. All three categories of asthma were associated with a family history of asthma, but there was no association with any perinatal factors. A diagnosis of asthma before age 7 was more likely when the mother smoked in pregnancy (P < 0.005) and currently smoked (P < 0.01), and trended so when parents lacked high school qualifications and in Maori or Pacific Island families (P < 0.10). In contrast, daily medication was more frequent when parents had educational qualifications and in non-Maori or Pacific Island families (P < 0.05). On multiple logistic regression, a family history of asthma was a significant predictor for any and current asthma (P < 0.001) and daily medication (P < 0.05); maternal smoking in pregnancy was a significant predictor for any asthma (P < 0.05); and non-Maori or Pacific Island ethnicity was a significant predictor for asthma treatment (P < 0.05). We conclude that rates of childhood asthma are high in this VLBW cohort, but the high prevalence appears to be unrelated to perinatal factors, including respiratory morbidity. There are suggestions that social factors contribute to both asthma risk and treatment.

Smoking and women's health. Influences on women's smoking status. The contribution of socioeconomic status in adolescence and adulthood

Background: Declining smoking prevalence is associated with widening socioeconomic differentials in tobacco use. The study investigates the influence of the adolescent and adult socioeconomic environment on the smoking status of adult women. Methods: A secondary data analysis of a nationally representative survey of households in Britain, the British Household Panel Survey, was undertaken of 2,678 non-Asian women aged 18–49 years in 1991. Multivariate analysis confirmed the significant and independent effect of adolescent and adult SES on the odds of being a current smoker. Results: With respect to adolescent SES, school-leaving age and school qualifications exerted an independent effect. With respect to current SES, housing tenure was the strongest predictor of smoking status. Along with living in rented housing, other markers of current disadvantage also increased the odds of being a current smoker, including living in a household without access to a car and being dependent on means-tested benefits. Not living with a partner also increased the odds of smoking. Compared to Black women, White women were over twice as likely to be a current smoker. Conclusions: Public health policies to reduce the socioeconomic gradient in smoking among women should target both adolescence and adulthood. Investment in the education of children heading towards early school leaving and minimum school qualifications could yield positive health dividends in later life, in terms of higher SES and lower smoking prevalence. Interventions to raise the living standards of women in lower socioeconomic groups may be required if they are to match the rates of decline achieved among women in more advantaged circumstances.

Credible or Tentative? A Model of Open University Students with ‘Low’ Educational Qualifications

Changes in higher education have meant that institutions are attracting increasing numbers of mature students, who have diverse social and educational backgrounds and may lack conventional A Level (higher secondary school) qualifications. The present study by Dr. Shelley McAlister, an Open University Social Science Associate Lecturer, concerns a group of mature students at the Open University who entered Level 1 Foundation courses in Technology and Social Science without having A Level qualifications. Although they were all categorised as having ‘low’ educational qualifications, they had a range of educational skills and experiences which meant that they perceived their experience of university study in very different ways. Using a social cognitive framework Dr. McAlister has developed a model of Credible and Tentative students which does not predict drop out, but which focuses on the complex interplay between psychological, social and institutional issues which affected their study.

The contribution of primary school teachers to curriculum planning and development in Iraq

ABSTRACTThis article describes the role of primary school teachers in Iraq in connection with curriculum change and development. It identifies the ways in which professional teachers have been faced with increased central control and concludes by responding directly to the Ministry of Education. A survey involving interviews and questionnaires was conducted with primary school teachers of different school location, age, gender, experience, qualifications and subjects taught, and in various school locations. Headteachers and education officials were also interviewed to establish the degree of involvement of primary teachers in their curriculum planning process.

Mike Dexter: a welcome appointment

Mike Dexter: a welcome appointment

Do school qualifications predict competence in nursing calculations?

Do entry characteristics in mathematics of student nurses selected to undertake nurse training have any predictive value for competence in nursing calculations? This paper analyses the results of a diagnostic mathematics test given to students entering the Project 2000 course at one college of nursing in England in relation to the students' entry qualifications in mathematics. The results suggest that paper qualifications in mathematics, other than those of above GCSE grade C or equivalent, should not be relied upon to predict performance in a test of calculations required in nursing. Selection procedures for nursing courses that use a mathematics or numeracy test as a requirement for entry may be excluding potentially competent nurses from selection. Opportunities for helping to build confidence and competence in nursing calculations should be built into the nursing curriculum.

The Diploma Disease in Egypt: learning, teaching and the monster of the secondary leaving certificate

Eygpt's education system is dominated by the secondary leaving certificate, the thanaawiya aama examination. From the earliest primary years, schooling is characterised by examination orientation and ritualisation. These features, in addition to Egypt's relatively late drive towards modernisation accompanied by centralisation and newly forged social divisions, clearly categorise Egypt as a victim of the ‘diploma disease’. Attempts to reform the assessment system are being hampered by the continuing perception of current school qualifications as the means to success, whether in the public or private sector, within Egypt or abroad.

THE EFFECTS OF COMPANY TRAINING, FURTHER EDUCATION AND THE YOUTH TRAINING SCHEME ON THE EARNINGS OF YOUNG EMPLOYEES*

AbstractThis paper provides evidence on the impact of company training, of post‐compulsory education and of the UK Youth Training Scheme in the late 1980's on the earnings of 21‐year‐old employees in England and Wales. Earnings equations are estimated for each of seven groups of employees who have followed alternative routes from compulsory education into employment, allowing for selectivity into these routes. There are several findings, including: both high parental social class and better school qualifications help to channel people into higher status routes, while high local unemployment has the opposite effect; participation in company training in long spells substantially raises wages but short spells do not; YTS participation fails to raise, and possibly substantially lowers, wages even three years after graduation compared to those who left school at 16 and went to work and received no training; there is weak evidence that, even for those that do not enter higher education, it is better to stay on at school after 16 than go into YTS.

Entering the Labour Market in Britain: The Survival of Traditional Opportunity Structures

This article analyses the career development from age 16 to 20 of representative samples from Kirkcaldy, Liverpool, Sheffield and Swindon who were surveyed by mailed questionnaire in three successive years – 1987, 1988 and 1989. Although most respondents attributed significant power of career determination to themselves, the evidence shows that the young people's career choices had typically been inconsequential for their later achievements. These had depended on their places of residence, secondary school qualifications, and social class backgrounds. The samples' self-concepts and social beliefs were not systematically affected by, but had played a part in determining, their career paths. However, social class origins, on account of their cumulative effects at successive career stages, were the best predictors of the samples' longer-term career trajectories. The evidence from this research shows that the benefits of the new opportunities in post-compulsory education and youth training that were introduced in Britain in the 1980s were filtered by the traditional predictors of career success. Furthermore, the main routes into the workforce of the 1970s and before – an academic track for high achievers in education, and employment-led inductions from age 16 or 17 for the rest – remained the main routes at the end of the 1980s.

The Influence of Opportunity on Aspirations Among Prospective University Entrants from Scottish Schools, 1970-88

The paper shows that decisions by school-leavers about applying to university are influenced by the chance that an application would be successful. Two tests are offered. The first compares different school qualification categories within each year: the greater the success rate among applications in a category, the greater is the propensity of pupils in that category to apply. The second test is over time: aggregate reduction in the number of university places in the early 1980s, relative to the number of qualified school-leavers, is shown to be associated with a fall in the propensity to apply.

The Learning Latin Computer Package (LLCP)

LLCP - the acronym covers the Learning Latin Computer Package and the Learning Latin Computer Project - started as a Computers in Teaching Initiative project under my direction in April 1986. Its aim was to create PC software to support Latin parsing and metaphrasing exercises based on the course book Learning Latin: an Introductory Course for Adults by John Randall et al, which was published to coincide with the project. Learning Latin is unique among Latin courses in a number of ways: it uses only real Latin, that is, Latin by classical Latin-speaking authors, it is in essence intelligence-based rather than rote-memory based, and it was designed to lead to computer assistance. Learning Latin is aimed primarily at beginners; but it can and does function also as a rapid revision course for students who have already studied and gained qualifications in Latin al secondary or high school.

Who Are the Contemporary British Petty Bourgeoisie?

ROGER BURROWS IS A LECTURER IN sociology at the University of Surrey, England. This paper uses data from the 1985 General household Survey to investigate the determnants of a contemporary petty bourgeoisie class status in the United status in the United Kingdom. The analysis is based on a logisticd regression procedure which allows for amultivariate analysis of the sort seldom found within the current small business research literature. Independent variables examiend are social class origins, highest education qualifications and gender. He finds that the group with the highest probability of being member of the petty bourgeoisie is men from employer and manager backgrounds, who have some kind of aprenticenship as their highest form of educational attainment. The Group with the lowest Probability is women from non-petty bourgeoise backgrounds who have some form of post compulsory schooling qualifications.