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Australia has a long history of accepting unmatriculated, return-to-study and equity group mature age learners into undergraduate courses. Universities enrol mature age students on the basis of, for example, their equity background, prior learning, work experiences, scores on a mature age entrance test, or results in an alternative entry program. This study examined the nature and outcomes of four alternative entry programs (AEPs) to higher education for mature age learners (21 years plus). Alternative entry programs provide mature age students with a way to explore their academic aptitude for, and confidence to, study. Prior to this research there was a lack of knowledge regarding the characteristics and outcomes of AEPs for mature age students. In addition, there was no study that examined a series of AEPs to show the relationship between AEP characteristics and learner outcomes. The inquiry addresses this shortfall. The project takes a qualitative case study approach. It provides a way of understanding the uniqueness, particularities and complexities of four AEPs for Australian resident mature age learners. The inquiry indicates implications of current policy and practices. Also it considers ways to advance program characteristics and outcomes.

The fallibility of human judgment in the making of decisions requires the use of tests to enhance decision-making processes. Although testing is surrounded with issues of bias and fairness, it remains the best means of facilitating decisions over more subjective alternatives. As a country in transition, all facets of South African society are being transformed. The changes taking place within the tertiary education system to redress the legacy of Apartheid, coincide with an international trend of transforming higher education. One important area that is being transformed relates to university entrance requirements and admissions procedures. In South Africa, these were traditionally based on matriculation performance, which has been found to be a more variable predictor of academic success for historically disadvantaged students. Alternative or revised admissions procedures have been implemented at universities throughout the country, in conjunction with academic development programmes. However, it is argued in this dissertation that a paradigm shift is necessary to conceptualise admissions and placement assessment in a developmentally oriented way. Furthermore, it is motivated that it is important to keep abreast of advances in theory, such as item response theory (IRT) and technology, such as computerized adaptive testing (CAT), in test development to enhance the effectiveness of selecting and placing learners in tertiary programmes. This study focuses on investigating the use of the Accuplacer Computerized Placement Tests (CPTs), an adaptive test battery that was developed in the USA, to facilitate unbiased and fair admissions, placement and development decisions in the transforming South African context. The battery has been implemented at a university in the Eastern Cape and its usefulness was investigated for 193 participants, divided into two groups of degree programmes, depending on whether or not admission to the degree required mathematics as a matriculation subject. Mathematics based degree programme learners (n = 125) wrote three and non-mathematics based degree programme learners (n = 68) wrote two tests of the Accuplacer test battery. Correlations were computed between the Accuplacer scores and matriculation performance, and between the Accuplacer scores, matriculation performance and academic results. All yielded significant positive relationships excepting for the one subtest of the Accuplacer with academic performance for the non-mathematics based degree group. Multiple correlations for both groups indicated that the Accuplacer scores and matriculation results contribute unique information about academic performance. Cluster analysis for both groups yielded three underlying patterns of performance in the data sets. An attempt was made to validate the cluster groups internally through a MANOVA and single-factor ANOVAs. It was found that Accuplacer subtests and matriculation results do discriminate to an extent among clusters of learners in both groups of degree programmes investigated. Clusters were described in terms of demographic information and it was determined that the factors of culture and home language and how they relate to cluster group membership need further investigation. The main suggestion flowing from these findings is that an attempt be made to confirm the results with a larger sample size and for different cultural and language groups.

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / South Africa

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (DCom (Human Resources Management))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

This study examined the nature and strength of relationship between specific related high school academic grades and the cumulative graduating average of students in five allied health programs at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Lack of scientific studies on selection criteria for determining the cumulative graduating average of allied health professionals at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (B.C.I.T.) was evident. Educators argue that in order to enhance educational opportunities for institute students, there is a professional obligation upon the policy-makers to gather appropriate data to determine which factors contribute to the success of the allied health student. With the high cost of technical education, admission officers and admissions committees are accountable for their selection processes to the institute's administration, decision makers, provincial and federal funding sources, and society. The results of this study may assist admissions officers in selecting academic variables that indicate the cumulative graduating average so that a better match can be made between the students and their performance in allied health programs. The accessible population of 629 graduates from the allied health technologies in this study were biomedical electronics, medical laboratory, medical radiography, nuclear medicine, and prosthetics and orthotics. The dependent variable measurement of academic achievement for these students was their cumulative graduating average. Single variables consisted of the grade point average of the following: pretechnology academic requirements, high school English, high school algebra, high school biology, high school chemistry, and high school physics. Descriptive statistics, zero-order correlations, and stepwise multiple regression analysis were the statistical methods employed to determine which specific academic variable or multiple of variables exhibited a strong relationship between the cumulative graduating average and academic variables. The analysis identified certain variables that strongly related to the cumulative graduating average, both singly and in combination with others. Each of the program significant combination of variables are provided here in order of descending influence: Biomedical Electronics Technology- high school algebra; Medical Laboratory Technology- the pretechnology grade point average, high school chemistry, biology, and algebra; Medical Radiography Technology- high school biology and chemistry; Nuclear Medicine- the pretechnology grade point average, high school chemistry, and high school biology; Prosthetics and Orthotics Technology- the pretechnology grade point average and high school chemistry. Academic variables did not account for more than 34% of the total variables in any of the programs. The level of significance for individual variables was the convention, 0.05. Clearly, each program had its own character; however, the performance of students in the natural sciences were significant in four of the five programs. An attempt was made to investigate which specific high school subjects correlated highly with the cumulative graduating average of students at the B.C.I.T. through a inspection of five programs for five graduating classes. Relevant variables were identified that were indicative of academic achievement in each specific program of study. Investigating the nature and strength of relationship between preprofessional grades and the cumulative graduating average of allied health students at B.C.I.T. could benefit both students and admissions officers by supplying a piece to an educational puzzle that would demystify the selection process. The information presented may assist admissions officers and prospective allied health students make more suitable educational choices. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This experimental study is designed to obtain objective data which may be useful in facilitating improved academic counseling of high school seniors. It is concerned with the average of some standard objective test scores obtained by testing a selected sample of high school seniors who were tested in a regular classroom situation; and with the average academic grades earned by the same sample of students during their first semester and their first year in college. The experiment will seek to establish or refuse statistical significance between the average scores obtained by the objective tests and the prade-point averages earned during the two time-periods established. The purpose of the study is: (1) analyse and evaluate selected objective tests as a predictor of the success or failure of college students: (2) interpret the use that the tests might serve to facilitate academic counseling.