education-economics

If you can use the internet, you do not need this book. There are no "big secrets" or earth-shaking revelations here. The information presented in this book is free to anyone who can do an internet search on whatever subject they are interested in. The only thing I learned from this book is how to compile readily available information and sell it for a profit. SAVE YOUR MONEY!

All of those useful little tidbits of information people always end up learning the hard way are in this book. There is almost too much useful consumer information in here. I am sure this book will save me a huge amount of trouble later in life. If you've ever wanted a book that could instill years of knowledge and experience to help you out with all sorts of monetary concerns, this is the book for you.

I was impressed with the sheer volume and accuracy of the information contained in this book. It is filled with many benefits, and the future savings in dollars is just amazing.

This book reports on studies the authors conducted in Indiana between 1986 and 1994. It examines what may make a high schooler predisposed to attend college, how students search for college opportunities, and what choices they ultimately make upon graduation from high school. Finally, it reviews what the study's participants actually did do in the four years following high school.

In addition to outlining findings from these surveys, Going to College also reports in greater depth on interviews with eight students. While relatively interesting, the interviews are not the most beneficial part of the book. Even the surveys, the book acknowledges, may be somewhat limited in their value. For instance, some results may not be useful to people in other parts of the country. The study is set in Indiana, where the average parental income and educational levels are in the bottom half of the fifty states.

Nonetheless, Going to College contains a number of interesting conclusions and statements. For example, the study discovered that seven of ten sophomores who said they planned to attend a college of some sort did actually matriculate in college after high school. However, only 35% of the students surveyed ended up attending one of the colleges they were considering in the tenth grade year.

Going to College also tries to determine what characteristics may "predict" whether or not a high schooler will end up attending college. The role of parents seems to be a key predictor. The authors found that toward the beginning of the college selection process--during the early high school years--the encouragement of parents is most likely to determine whether or not a student has college aspirations. Sixty-four percent of students who received strong encouragement from their parents attended a four-year college (p. 102). The parents' level of educational attainment also makes a difference. As that level increases, children are more likely to go to college. Seventy-five percent of students whose parents had a college degree actually enrolled in college (p. 104).

The second strongest indicator of college aspirations is the students' high school grade point average. Ninety-one percent of A students plan to attend a four-year college and 65% of B students do, but only 28% of C students expect to go to college (p. 106).

Going to College represents the type of research that most college and university enrollment managers would love to conduct: A longitudinal study that traces students' and parents' attitudes, influences and goals through the high school years and beyond. Unfortunately, the results of this particular study are somewhat limited.

I'm not in an education area, I'm an engineer though. I bought this book to see research in educational or social science on impat of high school students choosing their higher education. After reading "preface", I was stunned for the research had been conducted for "9" years! This book is very important for any parents. The college may be for your children at 17-18, but this book will tell you how important you are to support them; not only when they go to College but much before (e.g., sixth grade). I'm glad I read this book before I have my own child. What more surprising me is the book organization. This book was well written and organized. The structure is easy to follow. For each case study, the conclusion was drawn. Their research factors/questions were well defined. I wasn't surprised to see the outcome of their research. What annoy me is the keeping-talking of statistics tool. While it's important, the writing and research are more important. It's quite disappointed me.

Don Hossler is probably the most prolific writer on admissions and enrollment management in the last two decades, and, in my opinion, the best. This book, written with two co-authors, though, disappoints a little bit.

If you're looking for a basic overview on how students select colleges, try Hossler's other work or that of others on the structure of college choice. Avoid the mass-market "choosing a college" books that are targeted to over-anxious students and parents.

The core of the book describes a longitudinal study the authors did on Indiana high school students. While the stats and ancedotes do a fine job helping the reader to understand the process *these students* were going through, it's difficult to read and not think "how would this apply to other students? Does it at all?"

There is a worthy summary of the current theory and models of student college choice in the closing chapters. My advice, if you read this book, is to start with the generalized information in the back and then read the rest of the book from page one.

This is a highly skewed version of MBA schools. Take it with a pound of salt and don't forget to read the logic and process they have used to make the survey useful for choosing your school.

This guidebook gave us the first business school ranking from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). When the ranking released, the news has propagated shock among MBA candidates, holders, and applicants, because the WSJ ranking was different from traditional one. This book explains why WSJ ranking is so different from others, and how WSJ evaluate business school in their ranking. If you are considering business school application, this book is must see item as the guide has different perspective from Businessweek, U.S. News, and Financial Times. If you are recruiter, you also have to read this book before visiting campus to find prospective candidates.

However, I would strongly recommend applicants to read other guidebooks, in addition to the book, because there is no single, absolutely right ranking in the world. You should use this book as a source to choose your right business school.

My review is summed up in onw word...this book is ESSENTIAL!

I have been in the insurance industry 15 years and just decided to buy this as an addition for my work desk. I rarely open the book, however, anytime I go to look up a coverage definition it is not listed. This book is of NO use to me. Not really sure who would use this.............a person who hands out maps at the Auto Club who may need to look up a word or two?

For general knowledge of insurance terms I guess this is an adequate dictionary and nevertheless needed for understanding insurance terms. I find however that being IN the insurance business as a newcomer and needing to have all my insurance words defined, this dictionary lacks many terms used, at least on the Life insurance side of it, so leaves me grasping for other sources and references to find these words which should be defined in this dictionary in the first place.

This is an American based book but covers every imaginable insurance term, in every sector of the finance/insurance industry. It not only provides definitions of terms but broadley defines the cover provided under different types of insurance. This is a must for any professional in the financial services/insurance industry as a great reference.

Most books have a dedication. This book has a "Warning - Disclaimer" that it is not what the title purports to be and if you are disappointed you can return it to the publisher for a refund. If the author and publisher cannot sync up on the purpose of this book what are we to make of it?

I make of it two small books labeled Part I and Part II with different subject matter and different target audiences. Part I does not do justice to the characteristics of a slam-dunk candidate for engineering education, but of course, girls of its target audience are too young for this metric. It makes more sense to write for their parents. Their parents are the ones who need to know how to guide them through sexism and gender expectations to keep her engineering option alive through middle school and high school. The author could discuss clues of a future engineer for parents to recognize in their daughters to encourage them. Instead we get cheer leading, hurrah for engineering, engineering "... is the perfect example of the American dream" without elaboration.

Part II is entitled "The Many Faces of Engineering". This part combines a discussion of the different engineering disciplines with career stories. It is directed to high school students who are already on their way to choosing engineering education. This second part is good but Part I left me shaking my head in disbelief.

For example ...

The author writes, "Excellent grades in math and science ... are not prerequisites to becoming a good engineer." This is silly. One does not learn to think like an engineer without doing the math. Mathematical concepts should come easy to a prospective engineer and he/she should make A's and B's with reasonable effort. Someone interested in a career in technology who does poorly in math should consider an engineering technology degree.

When you get beyond the platitudes and vacillations of Part I, what is left is a flicker of light here and there that does not shine consistently or convincingly.

First off, let me say that if you are a young woman in high school this is certainly worth your time reading, because that is basically who this book was written for. For the most part, this book does give the reader the basics of what engineering offers, but I think the book would have been more effective and entertaining if she either tried to limit her topics or increased the length of the book. I find that most of the book starts off interesting, gives you a vague glimpse and then spends the next 130 pages telling you where to go if you want to know anything about the topic, I thought that was the whole purpose of buying this book in the first place. In my opinion, this book is like Raymond Landis' " Studying Engineering"( a book I did enjoy), without the depth. If you're looking for a book that's written with junior high-schoolers in mind, this book will give them a starting point with which to explore their interest in engineering.

I am not an engineer, not have I ever --even for one brief shining moment-- entertained the notion of becoming one. However, in my chosen profession as a science teaching methods educator I have had the opportunity to work with professors from the College of Engineering at my university in a collaborative effort to integrate the best instructional strategies from my area, the College of Education, with the best problem solving techniques and knowledge from their college. In an attempt to better understand the world from their perspective I picked up a copy of Celeste Baine's IS THERE AN ENGINEER INSIDE YOU? I thoroughly enjoyed it and truly gained a new appreciation for this field. This book is written at a level which can easily be understood by a lay person, and it is both engaging and entertaining. Even a non-engineering type like me can appreciate her wonderful anecdotes along with her insightful observations about her field. This book is more than just a comprehensive guide to career decisions in engineering; it is an informative, reader-friendly reference to the entire field. With exhaustive research Baine has put together a composite handbook on engineering --complete with descriptive analysis of 25 branches of engineering, several available non-traditional opportunities, and resources for those who are even thinking about getting interested in some aspect of this fast emerging and diversifying job market. Baine accomplished something no one heretofore has been able to do; she had me thinking, "Hey, maybe I'd like to be an engineer!" Even if it was only for a moment . . .

The frist chapters are good backround infromation. The recipes are done in metric, and are well written as to the steps to make the products. With some knowlage of baking you can do these here in America. Some of the recipes are for very ruial areas of the world, ie: use cow-dung for the fire to bake one of the breads. Over all good info for setting up a bakery.

I was looking for references to start my own bakery and this was one of the books that came up in my search. For someone like me who never went to a culinary school where food management is taught extensively, I thought that Mr Bathie answered some of my very basic questions of lay out and process management. It's a highly instructive book for someone, like me, who has no professional background in baking. The writing is clear and concise and layman languange is used extensively through out the book. As Mr Bathie was a consultant for most of Asia and African countries, he laid to rest some of my uncertainty of the operations of a bakery. The book includes some basic layout configurations of certain types of bakery and also explains briefly uses of machineries for semi or fully automated bakeries. I find the book very enlightening and I recommend it for those who has no background in baking for profit as a point of reference.

As a practitioner of distance learning in a number of forms and formats, I eagerly seek new publications that might help to bring a little more knowledge and science to the art. The title of Lau's book was sufficiently intriguing for my to buy it. Its promise of tying technologies to issues, trends, and opportunities, however remains largely unfilled.

Lau has produced a collection of 16 chapters from 22 authors with broad backgrounds and a divergent set of views on distance learning. Some have addressed the issues to technology application head-on, some not so directly. There is an underlying unevenness of this collection, though they all relate to distance teaching or distance learning. Some chapters are stiff and formal (chapter 1, for example) and others are very loose (2); some are broad and general (2), and others focused and technical (10, 16); some are well documented (5, 9), and others not at all (7); some are profusely illustrated (1, 10), and most not visually supported.

Lau set out to provide a volume to (1)"provide the theoretical foundation of distance learning," that (2) "describes the conceptual aspects of distance learning." and (3) "provides five cases of practical implementation of distance learning." To some degree, all are provided with varying success.

Several chapters were well received by this reader. Of special interest was Adrian's piece on technology and total quality management in developing a learning environment. He does a nice job of presenting and integrating concepts of TQM and distance learning, and setting forth some modifications in the traditional TQM process to apply to the distance environment.

The piece which may come closest to meeting the promise of the title is by Smith and Ransbottom of the United States Military Academy at West Point; it lays out a fairly technical discussion of issues and challenges in meeting the evolving needs and technology related to the use of video in the distance learning world.

Adams and Freeman also offer an interesting short analysis of the use of knowledge management and application of technology in an evolving doctoral program.

There are of gems buried in this volume, though they might be difficult to locate. There are also some good ideas which bear further development; perhaps a project for another day or other researchers.

If you are a value-conscious book buyer and reader, you may want to skip this one. The few really strong and useful chapters might not justify the....price tag.

A few of the articles in this collection, edited by Linda Lau, may be peripheral to your interests - for me these were topics such as 'Applying Technology and TQM to Distance Learning or 'Web-Based Training for the Network Marketing industry', but in general this is an excellent collection of thoughtful and thought-provoking essays around the title themes. I'm confident that everyone involved in this area will find articles with valuable insights both basic and advanced into this rapidly burgeoning field of endeavour. For example, the pedagogical analysis in the first essay 'Web-Based Learning and Instruction: a Constructivist Approach' by Valerie N. Morphew (West Virginian Wesleyan College) is succinct, insightful and offers a basis for explaining to recalcitrant academics how their teaching may actually benefit from incorporating some web-based teaching and learning activities.

This book is overloaded with flowcharts, exercises, and tables, but has limited useful content. One slim chapter on developing an instructional plan, most of the rest of the book is fluff about choosing meeting rooms, developing budgets, and similar material.

If you are looking for a book to teach you how to teach, this ain't it. But if you are looking for something comprehensive that discusses all the many aspects one must consider to plan and execute a quality program, this is a gem. If you do much sponsoring of programs and events, you know it is the little things that can ruin your day: the air conditioner is not working, you did not adequately budget for the materials needed, you did not anticipate the needs of the participants, etc. This helps prevent geting blindsided. I refer to this frequently when preparing workshops and programs, and recommend it to others.

This book covers all the aspects of adult education program planning. Though, most of the information seems common sense, it is this straight-forward writing that makes this book such a fantastic reference. I continually refer back to the book when developing my adult ed programs to make sure I'm not missing anything. The information covered in each chapter is a great overview and provides insight to program development. I recommend for more specific information on a particular chapter to seek out other resources that go more in depth. Overall, it is a great guide to successful program planning.

If you are put off by silly grammatical errors and absurd typos, then don't buy this book. It doesn't appear that anyone edited or proofed the material before it went to print. I bought the version that was copyrighted in 1999. I'm not sure what the authors were thinking, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't about their readers. I decided I could use it in my teaching, but probably not as the authors intended.

The information contained in this book is very practical. Also, in contrast to some other task analysis books it is very readable. It does have some minor errors as another reviewer has pointed out. But I feel that the information contained is very good and I highly recommend this book.

This isn't an easy book to work through. It doesn't artificially simplify the field, doesn't give us the One True Method for task analysis, doesn't adopt One True Strategy for Instructional Design.

Instead, the book surveys a wide range of alternative approaches, provideas many references to different segments of the literature, and plenty of interesting insights.

I'm a Professor of Software Engineering (who also has a Ph.D. in Psychology). I focus my research on the teaching of software testing -- as a field, we are still in the early stages of curriculum development. The equivalent of a full semester in testing will soon be an ACM/IEEE requirement for a B.Sc. in Software Engineering, and so we need curriculum development in testing NOW. I find this book useful in my work and as a thought-provoker that I lend to my graduate students. It doesn't tell them what to do. It gives them enough information (and pointers) to help them think about why they should prefer one alternative over another.

I purchased the tape and found it to be most disappointing. I would not recommend this book (nor the tape) to anyone. Sorry, but that is how I feel. Scott.

All to often problem solving becomes a team exercise where each member "shares their ignorance (of the essence of the problem)" while searching for a solution. Having a systematic approach to define, research, select alternatives, implement, control, and encourage feedback is a better way to reach a successful solution. This little book provides a fun guide suitable for the novice in problem solving techniques. I found the book to be entertaining yet helpful, especially for my strategic planning clients.

Great way of making pooh's likfe look like ours. It shows us how simple life can be, and how much and how little things matter. Great book, easy to understand.