Some of the most important challenges for engineering schools at the beginning of the 21st century are summarised as well as the role of ERASMUS Thematic Networks (TN) in this scenario.
Though focus is mainly given to the European environment, the changes which are interesting Engineering Education appear to involve also the non-European sphere and therefore, this set of papers on the main outcomes of E4 Thematic Network (2000–2004) has been conceived, not only as an useful instrument of dissemination, but also an open window on Europe.
In this introductory paper key characteristics of successful TNs are outlined, as resulting from the experience of TN E4, Enhancing Engineering Education in Europe, which has terminated its life end of September 2004. The new TN project, denominated TREE, for Teaching and Research in Engineering in Europe, is briefly presented.
On the other hand, in the following 5 sections some of the main activities developed within E4 are presented touching topics related to accreditation, quality assurance, students involvement in Engineering Education, ICT and new learning methods and curriculum development. 相似文献
Has also been director or executive secretary of several educational projects in Brazil. Author of some twenty books and of numerous articles on education, training, science and technology. 相似文献
Testing programs are often interested in using a student growth measure. This article presents analytic derivations of the accuracy of common student growth measures on both the raw scale of the test and the percentile rank scale in terms of the proportional reduction in mean squared error and the squared correlation between the estimator and target. The study contrasts the accuracy of the growth measures against that of current status measures—current test scores and their percentile ranks. Key findings include the extent that status measures are more accurate than any of the growth measures and that alternative methods to estimate growth could be more accurate than the currently used methods. Our findings highlight the importance for evaluating the statistical properties of growth measures along with other concerns for states that are debating the reporting of growth. Our results also point out that assessing the accuracy of growth measures requires the specification of quantities of interest in terms of latent achievement rather than observed test scores, which is common practice for developing status measures but essentially never done by testing programs for growth measures. 相似文献
The aim of the present study is twofold: (1) contribute to identifying a model for the variables that compose the emergent
literacy construct and their relationships; (2) assess the predictive power of the emergent literacy model on early writing
abilities in a transparent orthography language.
We examined emergent literacy skills in 464 children (mean age 5.5, range: 48–6.1) who were followed longitudinally until
entering the 1st grade in primary school. Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analyses were used to address questions on the
nature of emergent literacy skills and their possible relationships. Regression analyses were implemented to evaluate the
predictive capability of an emergent literacy model on word writing competences. The factor analyses showed three factorial
dimensions (phonological, conceptual knowledge on writing system and textual) and their relationship. The regressions showed
a significant prediction of conceptual knowledge on writing system and of phonological abilities on early writing abilities. 相似文献
Although measures of student ratings of instruction have been developed and examined empirically, students' attitudes about the utility of these ratings have yet to be meaningfully quantified. Using survey responses from 1229 students at a major Canadian university, we developed a psychometrically sound measure of the usefulness of student ratings. A principal components analysis with oblique rotation was conducted and three factors (Instructor characteristics, Course characteristics and Instructor's relative ranking) were obtained that explained 64% of the variance in six iterations. The usefulness of these three types of ratings information differs according to several student and course characteristics. The present results provide evidence for both reliability and validity of the instrument as an indicator of the utility of teaching evaluation for students. 相似文献
Imitation is a key mechanism of human culture and underlies many of the intricacies of human social life, including rituals and social norms. Compared to other animals, humans appear to be special in their readiness to copy novel actions as well as those that are visibly causally irrelevant. This study directly compared the imitative behavior of human children to that of bonobos, our understudied great ape relatives. During an action‐copying task involving visibly causally irrelevant actions, only 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children (N = 77) readily copied, whereas no bonobo from a large sample did (N = 46). These results highlight the distinctive nature of the human cultural capacity and contribute important insights into the development and evolution of human cultural behaviors. 相似文献
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention programme in the physical education setting designed to change attitudes and emotions triggered by potentially risky motor tasks. The individual zones of optimal functioning (IZOF) model was used as a theoretical framework for the study. Italian male and female high school students (N = 84) took part in a 12 lesson intervention and in test?–?retest sessions. The assessment was conducted using the Motor Activity Anxiety Test to measure the students' approach-avoidance attitudes in the face of physical education tasks purported to engender strong emotional reactions. An idiosyncratic emotional profile was also implemented using a list of pleasant/unpleasant emotional adjectives. Two experimental groups were involved in the learning and performing of several potentially risky, highly emotion-arousing tasks, while two control groups were engaged in low-risk team sports. According to the hypothesis of the study, the programme was effective in decreasing the students' avoidance tendencies towards thrilling tasks and in increasing optimal?–?pleasant emotions. Our findings also demonstrated the feasibility and utility of applying the IZOF model to the context of physical education. 相似文献
Self- and collective efficacy beliefs were examined as correlates of attitudes toward school of teachers, school staff, and
parents. 726 teachers, 387 staff members, and 1994 parents from 18 junior high schools in Milan and Rome, Italy, were administered
questionnaires assessing self-efficacy beliefs, perceptions about colleagues’ bahavior, collective efficacy beliefs, affective
commitment and job satisfaction of teachers and school staff and parents satisfaction with school.
Path analyses corroborated a conceptual model in which self- and collective efficacy beliefs represent, respectively, the
distal and proximal determinants of affective commitment and job satisfaction for teachers and staff and of satisfaction with
school for parents. Perceptions that teachers, staff and parents hold about the behavior of their colleagues largely mediated
the links between self- and collective efficacy beliefs. collective efficacy beliefs, in turn, largely mediated the influence
that self-efficacy beliefs and perceptions of school constituencies’ behaviors exert on attitudes toward school of teachers,
staff and parents. 相似文献