Based on the findings, this study posits some implications for China's overseas education policy and suggests future study directions, as well as identifies its own limitations. / Findings of this study show that mainland Chinese senior secondary students' choice of major for overseas higher education can be explained better by human capital theory. Students are more inclined to choose the major that has higher expected rate of return to overseas higher education. The choice of major is in fact a behavior looking for higher investment return, or for better overseas employment prospects which would increase the probability of capturing the expected rate of return to overseas higher education. / Over the last 50 years, overseas higher education in the world has developed rapidly. Existing literature shows that overseas higher education can promote the economic development of developing countries, and overseas higher education graduates of different majors may have different roles in economic development. / The study employs multinomial logistic regression in the statistical analysis of the data. Major findings of the study are as follows: (1) Two economic factors---senior secondary students' expected rate of return to overseas higher education, and perceived overseas employment prospects---significantly affect students' choice of major for overseas higher education; while other two factors---students' perceived domestic employment prospects, and consumption preferences---have no significant effect on students' choice of major. (2) The choice between each pair of majors are either significantly affected by students' expected rate of return to overseas higher education or perceived overseas employment prospects to overseas higher education, except for the pair of Engineering vs. Business Administration. (3) The interaction effect between students' expected rate of return to overseas higher education and family location, and the interaction effect between students' academic ability and family income, significantly affect students' choice of major for overseas higher education. (4) Some information factors also significantly affect students' choice of major. (5) Students' gender, academic ability, family income, parents' education, and family location also significantly affect their choices of major. / The study is based on the data set of a research project entitled "Seeking Higher Education Abroad: Student Choices and Reasons in China", funded by the Research Grants Council in Hong Kong and conducted by Professor Hung Fan-sing of The Chinese University of Hong Kong as the Principal Investigator. The data consists of the results of a questionnaire survey successfully conducted in early 2007 to 12,961 senior secondary students in seven cities in mainland China. / This study employs human capital theory to analyze mainland Chinese senior secondary students' choice of major for studying higher education abroad, and the main factors affecting their choices. / 劉揚. / Advisers: Fan-sing Hung; Yue-ping Chung. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: 1865. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-157). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Liu Yang.

One of the major priorities for community colleges is to focus on the pedagogical tools that will allow students to achieve excellence and quality in curriculum and instruction to meet the changing societal needs (Shearon & Tollefson, 1989). Rapid demographic, social, and technological changes demand that community colleges produce self-directed lifelong learners (Closson, 1996). The study of student learning preferences for more teacher-directed or more self-directed learning is one of the concepts that is important in enhancing teaching and learning practices. The purpose of this study was to examine students' teacher-directed versus self-directed learning preferences in specific courses. The possible relationships among age, gender, and academic majors and the learning preferences (teacher-directed or self-directed) were also explored. The revised version of Learning Style Preference Questionnaire (LSPQ) originally designed by Hinkle (1990) was administered to 563 students at five selected community colleges in the southeast. The majority of the participants were female traditional students majoring in the natural sciences. The sample showed a preference for teacher-directed orientation in specific courses. Statistically significant differences were observed in the magnitude of the teacher-directed orientation between the mean scores of male and female students with male students scoring significantly higher than the female students. Traditional students obtained significantly higher mean scores on the items addressing the delivery of instruction than the nontraditional students. Nontraditional students obtained significantly higher mean scores on the items addressing the testing of learning. Gender had an impact on the magnitude of the teacher-directed learning preferences for evaluation and testing of learning. Academic majors had an impact on the magnitude of the teacher-directed learning preferences for evaluation of learning. Students in this study preferred a teacher-directed approach to learning. Follow-up research using a variety of instruments may investigate how this preference contributes to or affects academic achievement. It is recommended that the methods and procedures adopted in this study be replicated in other community colleges across the nation. Learning preference concepts and methods should be developed at the community college level to include professional development of instructors so that they may better provide learning opportunities for their students. Such studies may also be conducted in other parts of the world to determine how cultural differences may impact on learning preferences.

The purposes of this study were to identify the factors influencing industrial-technical students in the choice of major area of study, to determine if certain areas were more influential when these students elected a major, and to provide information for industrial arts teacher-preparation programs that would aid in determining the reasons for the current industrial arts teacher shortage. From the study of factors influencing the student's choice of major, one may conclude that there is a definite need in the state of Texas for students to major in industrial arts education. One may also conclude that at the high school level, the industrial arts class and the industrial arts teacher have positive influences on the student when the student selects a college or university major. Perhaps the most significant conclusion is that the existence of an industrial arts teacher shortage is, in part, due to the fact that teaching salaries are not competitive with salaries offered by industry.

The traditional literature teaching methods for Chinese English majors are formalism and biographical criticism. These criticisms use an objective approach focused on details about the author, historical context and literary mechanics to analyze literature. These methods neglect the fact that literature comprehension involves readers’ active participation. Cultural criticism, as a critical approach, considers influences that readers bring to their engagement with a given literary text. This approach is supposed to fit the classroom settings for cross-cultural literature teaching and learning. This study was conducted to examine the effect of utilizing cultural criticism to teach British literature among Chinese undergraduate English majors. The effect of employing cultural criticism was reflected in two aspects: students’ cultural understandings of literary texts and their literature comprehension. In this study, students’ awareness of cultural influences in literary texts from cultural perspectives was evaluated as their cultural understandings; literature comprehension was assessed from students’ understanding in context, themes, and textual meaning of literary texts. In this study a pedagogy of cultural criticism was developed and implemented in the teaching of a British literature course. Students received instruction through cultural criticism lens for two hours per week over a period of 14 weeks. The instruments included two essay tests concerning the cultural analysis of literary works, and three literature comprehension tests. A quasi-experimental design and a repeated measure mixed-design were used to compare the performance for students in two experimental groups (cultural criticism approach) and one control group (formalist and biographical approach). Various statistical models were applied to data analysis. The experimental results showed that the cultural criticism approach resulted in better cultural understandings of literary texts and better literature comprehension than the traditional formalist and biographical approach. Another finding is the different performance in cultural understandings of literary texts between the two experimental groups, as the instructor had different proficiency levels in using the cultural criticism approach. This study has provided evidence that cultural criticism could be a valuable approach to help Chinese undergraduate English majors bridge cultural gaps in their understandings of literature and facilitate literature comprehension.

"... a study was undertaken to construct a rhythm test based on motor response for women physical education majors at North Texas State University during the spring semester of 1963."--3.

"To determine the general characteristics of the undergraduate men majors in the field of physical education and men majors in other fields...if the undergraduate men majors in physical education could be distinguished from the men majors in other fields"--4.

Attrition rates among students in music teacher training programs have contributed to a shortage of qualified music teachers for the nation's schools. The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictive relationship of academic variables in three different learning environments and the intent of a select population of music education majors to leave the degree program. The study drew upon the work of Tinto, Bean and Astin to form a theoretical foundation for examining variables unique to student withdrawal from the music education degree plan. Variables were examined within the context of three different learning environments: (1) applied lessons, (2) ensembles and (3) non-performance courses. Participants were 95 freshmen and sophomore music education majors at a public university who were enrolled in the music education degree program during the spring semester, 2002. Data included participant responses on the Music Student Inventory (MSI), a questionnaire developed specifically for the study, and grade data from university records. Independent variables in the study included participants' perceptions of (1) Ensemble experiences, (2) Applied lesson experiences, (3) Non-performance music course experiences, (3) Course requirements, and (4) Performance growth. Additional variables included: (1) Ensemble placement, (2) Course grades for music theory, applied lessons and aural skills, and (3) cumulative grade point averages. Gender interactions were also examined. The dependent variable in the study was intent to withdraw from the music education program. Data were analyzed using a binary logistic regression procedure. Results of the analysis indicated that none of the variables tested were statistically significant predictors of subjects' intentions to withdraw from the music education degree program. Gender interactions were not evident among the variables. Although statistically insignificant, the strongest predictor of the variables represented by questionnaire responses was lesson experiences. The ana ysis of course grades for music theory, applied lessons and aural skills failed to produce a statistically significant main effect, but applied lesson grades produced the strongest effect in the model. Results of the study suggest that students' intentions to withdraw from the music education program are related to variables other than those representing the academic component of the music education program.

The intent of this study was to identify subgroups within the college population having a heightened risk for eating disorders. The information for this analysis was retrieved from an existing data set. The two variables that were compared were self selection of college major at the initial collection during freshman year. The sample size of 1,924 was used to see if subgroups of college majors had a heightened risk. Twenty groups composed of similar majors were studied. The majors of Dance, Dietetics, Physical Education, and Communications had heightened risk according to analysis percentage of each group in the clinical range on the Eating Attitudes Test-40 (EAT-40), EAT-40 mean, and/or EAT-40 median. Results indicate that Dance, Dietetic, Physical Education, and Communications would merit additional resources to prevent eating disorders at the college level.

This study explores the internal and external views of entrepreneurship among students from various fields of study, including medicine, law, business, engineering and humanities. It investigates the likelihood of students engaging in entrepreneurial activities within their respective fields and identifies target groups with less positive perceptions and lower inclinations towards entrepreneurship. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, including a literature review and an interview with an entrepreneur from the medical field, we found that students in medicine show the least interest in entrepreneurship, while students in business show the highest, with other fields of study falling in between. These insights highlight the need for comprehensive entrepreneurship education and courses tailored to the specific fields of study to foster an entrepreneurial mindset among students by exposing them to its possibilities. By promoting innovation and entrepreneurial thinking, such initiatives hold significant potential for creating valuable opportunities within different academic domains.

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