ROPS 2009

ROPS 2009

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Ethical Decision-Making in College: Choosing Between Right, Wrong, and the Space in Between

Fanny P.F. Yeung
Jennifer R. Keup
2009

It is important to understand how students’ changing belief structures influence their values and behaviors, including their ethical beliefs and decision-making patterns. As such, this study will address the following research questions: 1) what are students’ ethical beliefs and their perceptions of students’ ethical behaviors; and 2) how do students’ personal values and perceptions of behaviors differ? Using data from the 2006 University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey, survey items about ethical decisions are grouped according to their association with the following...

Open Learning: What Do Open Textbooks Tell Us About the Revolution in Education?

Gary M. Matkin
2009

This paper provides a summary and assessment of the current development of open textbooks and describes a possible direction for future development and funded support of open textbook projects. This paper provides answers to the following questions: Why do we need open textbooks? What are open textbooks (in their various forms)? How are open textbooks developed and distributed? And finally, when will open textbooks be produced? As these questions are addressed, other dimensions relevant to the Open Education Resource (OER) movement are also revealed and discussed.

Transfer Student Experiences and Success at Berkeley

Sereeta Alexander
Debbie Ellis
Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton
2009

The current study focuses on the stigmatization and psychosocial experiences of community college transfer students within the university setting. Two hundred and sixty-three students nearing the completion of their studies at UC Berkeley responded to a series of open-ended questions about their academic, social, and psychological experiences at the university. Results indicate that nearly one-fifth of the respondents concealed the fact that they were transfer students at least once in the past and approximately one-fourth reported experiences of transfer-related rejection....

Reflections on a Century of College Admissions Tests, by Richard C. Atkinson and Saul Geiser

Richard C. Atkinson
Saul Geiser
2009

Standardized testing for college admissions has grown exponentially since the first administration of the old “College Boards” in 1901. This paper surveys major developments since then: the introduction of the “Scholastic Aptitude Test” in 1926, designed to tap students’ general analytic ability; E.F. Lindquist’s creation of the ACT in 1959 as a competitor to the SAT, intended as a measure of achievement rather than ability; the renewed interest on the part of some leading colleges and universities in subject-specific assessments such as the SAT Subject Tests and Advanced Placement...

European Responses to Global Competitiveness in Higher Education, by Marijk Van der Wende

Marijk Van der Wende
2009

The growing global competition in which knowledge is a prime factor for economic growth is increasingly shaping policies and setting the agenda for the future of European higher education. With its aim to become the world’s leading knowledge economy, the European Union is concerned about its performance in the knowledge sector, in particular in the nexus of research, higher education institutions, and innovation. A major concern is to solve the “European paradox”: whereby Europe has the necessary knowledge and research, but fails to transfer this into innovation and enhanced...

Decoding Learning Gains: Measuring Outcomes and the Pivotal Role of the Major and Student Backgrounds

Gregg Thomson
John Aubrey Douglass
2009

Throughout the world, interest in gauging learning outcomes at all levels of education has grown considerably over the past decade. In higher education, measuring “learning outcomes” is viewed by many stakeholders as a relatively new method to judge the “value added” of colleges and universities. The potential to accurately measure learning gains is also viewed as a diagnostic tool for institutional self-improvement. This essay compares the methodology and potential uses of three tools for measuring learning outcomes: the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), the National Survey of...

Recognizing and then Using Disciplinary Patterns of the Undergraduate Experience: Getting Past Institutional Standards

Steve Chatman
2009

The assertion that there are a limited set of generalizable good educational practices (Chickering & Gamson, 1987) with a common model of preferred active student engagement in learning (Kuh, 2001) is appealing to those responsible for simply stated institutional outcomes and to the faculty who teach in fields that espouse the same practices and outcomes (Braxton, 1998). After all, if they are wrong and educational experience and good educational practices differ in important, substantive, and replicable ways by area of academic major, then assessment, accountability, administration,...

DEFINING THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA OF THE FUTURE

Richard C. Atkinson
2009

With California’s public higher education system facing massive funding cuts and an increasingly diverse demography, the University of California recently established a commission to discuss policy options to shape the future of the ten campus system. The University of California Commission on the Future is chaired by UC Board of Regent Russell S. Gould and consists of other board members, faculty, a number of campus Chancellors, and representatives of the students, staff, alumni, and the business and labor communities. The commission will use working groups to reach out to the...

HIGHER EDUCATION’S NEW GLOBAL ORDER: How and Why Governments are Creating Structured Opportunity Markets

John Aubrey Douglass
2009

In the United States, developing human capital for both economic and social benefit is an idea as old as the nation itself and led to the emergence of world’s first mass higher education system. Now most other nations are racing to expand access to universities and colleges and to expand their role in society. Higher education is growing markedly in its importance for building a culture of aspiration and, in turn, the formation of human capital, the promotion of socioeconomic mobility, and the determination of national economic competitiveness. This paper outlines a convergence of...

THE ACADEMIC DEVOLUTION? Movements to Reform Teaching and Learning in US Colleges and Universities, 1985-2010

Steven G. Brint
2009

This paper traces the history of two reform movements organized more than two decades ago to improve teaching and learning in U.S. colleges and universities: the teaching reform movement, led by the liberal philanthropies, and the accountability movement, led by the states and, later, the regional accreditors. The paper concludes that the teaching reform movement helped to dislodge research as the accepted center of academic life and helped to spread progressive education methods throughout academe. Both of these changes are consistent with continuing low levels of student effort and...

THE GLOBAL COMPETITION FOR TALENT The Rapidly Changing Market for InternationalStudents and the Need for a Strategic Approach in the US

John Aubrey Douglass
Richard Edelstein
2009

There is growing evidence that students throughout the world no longer see the US as the primary place to study; that in some form this correlates with a rise in perceived quality and prestige in the EU and elsewhere; and further, that this may mean a continued decline in the US’s market share of international students. There clearly are a complex set of variables that will influence international education and global labor markets, including the current global economic recession. Ultimately, however, we think these factors will not alter the fundamental dynamics of the new global...