How to investigate the information processing strategies of students in competence-based pre-vocational secondary education: selection of the right instrument

In the Netherlands, many Pre-Vocational Secondary Education schools are implementing elements of competence-based education. These learning environments are expected to elicit the use of deep information processing strategies and to positively influence learning outcomes. While questionnaires are often used to investigate the preferences of students for particular types of information processing strategies in other educational contexts, these instruments cannot simply be adopted unaltered for use in Pre-Vocational Secondary Education where several characteristics of the students must be taken into account. This study explores the psychometric properties of three instruments for the measurement of student preferences for deep or surface information processing strategies in competence-based Pre-Vocational Secondary Education. The utility of a semi-structured interview, a questionnaire, and the think-aloud method was investigated. The questionnaire appeared to be the most accurate instrument and allowed easy classification of students in terms of their information processing preferences. The think-aloud method provided profound insight into the information processing strategies that the students preferred for a learning task and the frequencies with which the strategies were used. The interview results largely corresponded to the results produced by the other measurement instruments, but the interview data lacked the expected richness and depth.     

Location of manufactured housing and its accessibility to community services: a GIS-assisted spatial analysis

This paper investigates the location and accessibility disadvantages of manufactured housing using Geographical Information Systems. It is found that, on an aggregated basis, manufactured housing has been placed further away from positive public-community facilities and, hence, services than other types of housing. It has also been placed further away from major employment centers. Moreover, a higher percent of such housing has been placed in flood zones. On the other hand, manufactured housing has not been placed closer to large negative facilities, such as landfill sites, heavy industrial or manufacturing plants, or airports. These findings reinforce the claim that manufactured housing faces selected zoning barriers or restrictions.     

The Government/Democrats' package of changes in indirect taxes

Australia is faced with a comprehensive package of changes to its indirect tax system, including the introduction of a GST. The Government's only quantitative analysis in formulating the package employed PRISMOD, an archaic input-output price model. PRISMOD sheds dim light on a very limited range of policy-relevant variables. This article explains how PRISMOD works; this is of continuing relevance because PRISMOD results are a benchmark in negotiations concerning the price effects of the tax package. Then an assessment of the package is made using MONASH, a comprehensive dynamic general equilibrium model. Overall, the conclusions are negative: the package is welfare-reducing and unnecessary.