Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Response Style Contamination Of Student Evaluation Data, Sara Dolnicar, Bettina Grun

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Student evaluation surveys provide instructors with feedback regarding development opportunities and they form the basis of promotion and tenure decisions. Student evaluations have been extensively studied, but one dimension hitherto neglected is the actual measurement aspect: which questions to ask, how to ask them, and what answer options to offer to students to get the most valid results. This study investigates whether cross-cultural response styles affect the validity of student evaluations. If they do, then the student mix in a class can affect an instructor's evaluation, potentially producing biased feedback and prompting inappropriate decisions by university committees. This article discusses …

Click Or Clique? Using Educational Technology To Address Students' Anxieties About Peer Evaluation, Ruth Walker, Graham C. Barwell

Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) - Papers

Peer bias is recognised as a primary factor in negative student perceptions of peer assessment strategies. This study trialled the use of classroom response systems, widely known as clickers, in small seminar classes in order to actively engage students in their subject’s assessment process while providing the anonymity that would lessen the impact of peer pressure. Focus group reflection on the students’ impressions of the peer evaluation process, the use of clickers, and their anxieties about potential peer bias were analysed in the light of the results of teacher and class evaluations of each individual student presentation. The findings revealed …

Moving Beyond The Restrictions: The Evaluation Of The Alice Springs Alcohol Management Plan, Kate Senior, Richard Chenhall, Bill Ivory, Christopher Stevenson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

A report prepared for the NT Department of Justice.

There have been a number of evaluations of alcohol management in the Alice Springs region. Interestingly, an evaluation in 1975 emphasised the need for government and other agencies to view the issues holistically and to address them accordingly. The outcomes of this evaluation point to a similar situation with comparable recommendations.

The situation in Alice Springs is unique in some respects but has parallel characteristics to other towns and communities in Australia. Alice Springs is an important regional supply, service-orientated, and tourism town. Its people have diverse backgrounds and appear as …

An Evaluation Of P50 Suppression Methodologies, Anna Dalecki, Rodney J. Croft, Stuart J. Johnstone

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

'P50 suppression', an index of sensory gating, has demonstrated utility in schizophrenia research. It is widely reported that P50 suppression is deficient in schizophrenia patients and an endophenotypic marker for the disorder. However, unresolved methodological issues including the unestablished reliability of the measure, unknown effects of time-on-task and long protocol undermine its usefulness. In order to address these methodological issues, twenty healthy participants' P50 suppression was measured in a long P50 paradigm. This enabled the measurement of within-session reliability, temporal course of P50 suppression, and effects of the inter-pair interval parameter. Results indicated good within-session reliability for P50 suppression (ICC …

An Evaluation Of The Thermal Protective Clothing Used By Six Australian Fire Brigades, Pete Kerry, Anne Van Den Heuvel, Martin Van Dijk, Gregory E. Peoples, Nigel A.S. Taylor

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Individuals working in hot environments experience an increase in body core temperature due to the combined influences of physical activity, which elevates metabolic heat production, and external heat sources, which impede heat loss. Since dry heat exchanges are dependent upon thermal gradients, then hotter environments restrict heat dissipation, particularly when the air temperature approaches and exceeds that of the skin. Heat loss will now become progressively more reliant upon the evaporation of sweat, which is also gradient dependent.