Editorial
A warm welcome to issue 2 of 2006 with contributions from authors in Australia, Taiwan, Spain, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore and USA. From Griffith Institute for Higher Education, Dr Craig Zimitat contributes with Assistant Professor Chen of Taiwan, on Taiwanese students’ decision making regarding international higher education. The behaviour motivations of Taiwanese students intending to undertake higher education in Australia and the USA were analysed using the theory of planned behaviour. Data from 518 students was subjected to principal components analysis to ascertain factors related to their intention to study overseas. The findings showed that the influence of family and friends was more important than consideration of resources necessary in shaping intentions to study in the USA. Those differences provide a basis for the consideration of tailored marketing plans for these countries.
From Madrid Associate Professors Cubillo, Sánchez and Cervino write on a not dissimilar topic – the international students’ decision-making process. The authors contend that until now, research on the choice of higher education centres has focussed on the analysis of partial aspects of the process. Thus, the bulk of existing literature centres on the detection of key factors in the process and has studied separately the influence that personal decisions, the institutions image, availability of facilities, programme evaluations, and more recently, the effect of the country’s image have on the decision-making process of international students. The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical model that integrates the different groups of factors which influence the decision-making of international students, analysing different dimensions of this process and explaining these factors which determine students’ choice.
Dr Adam Nir and Meir Miran of the School of Education, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Ernst Young Accountants, have prepared a paper as a result of sponsorship by the Silbert Fund, on the equity consequences of school-based management. The authors ask “to what extent does the introduction of school-based management affect schools’ incomes and educational equity?”An analysis of financial reports coming from 31 schools during a four year period reveals that the overall inequity among schools has decreased slightly,although significant differences are found between high and low socio-economic schools. At the same time the findings show that significant differences exist between schools of low and high socio-economic backgrounds in the relative amount of incomes coming from parental payments. An analysis of the income provided to schools by the LEA suggests that the differences and inequalities between schools are moderated by the LEA which provides relatively more funds to schools of low socio-economic backgrounds following the introduction of SBM in schools. The study points to the danger inherent in SBM for educational equity and highlights the significance of a compensatory formula that will take into account mainly parental payments de facto in previous years.
Stuart Dawson is a doctoral student at the Centre for Learning Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology (writing also with Bruce Burnett and Mark O’Donohue). This topic is on learning communities – on untapped sustainable competitive advantage for higher education. The paper demonstrates the need for the higher education sector to develop and implement scaleable,quantitative measures that evaluate community and establish organisational benchmarks in order to guide the development of future practices designed to enhance the student learning experience. The paper proposes an effective measurement tool to benchmark current pedagogical performance standards and monitor the progress and achievement of future implemented practices designed to enhance the sense of community experienced by the student cohort.
Dr Kala Retna, Victoria University and Dr Ng Pak Tee of Nanyang Technological University report on a case study that examines how the learning organisation concept can be applied in a Singapore school and the challenges that the school faces in the process. The findings show that while the learning organisation concept can be applied in the school context to its benefit, there can be potential cultural conflicts, ambiguities and paradoxes, as highlighted in the paper. The wider societal culture has a profound influence on how the school structures, authority and relationship between subordinates and supervisors operate.
In the final paper Assistant Professor Teresa A Wasonga and Assistant Professor John Murphy both of Northern Illinois University link together in producing a paper on learning from tacit knowledge – the impact of the internship. The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of an internship on its participants in an educational administration programme. The study found that tacit knowledge was both contextual and released spontaneously to capture the nuances of the task or issue at hand. It was contextual because the situation provided meaning and connectedness. The tacit knowledge was externalised in the process of solving a particular problem or in response to a particular issue. It was spontaneous because the actions or conversations were not predetermined, or structured, they were provoked or emerged through deductions and inductions as interns and principals worked together to find solutions.
Brian E. Roberts
