Academic self-concept,autonomous academic motivation,and academic achievement: Mediating and additive effects

Three conceptual models were tested to examine the relationships among academic self-concept, autonomous academic motivation, and academic achievement. This allowed us to determine whether 1) autonomous academic motivation mediates the relation between academic self-concept and achievement, 2) academic self-concept mediates the relation between autonomous academic motivation and achievement, or 3) both motivational constructs have an additive effect on academic achievement. A total of 925 high school students (404 boys and 521 girls) were asked to complete a questionnaire on two occasions separated by a year interval. Results from SEM analyses provided good support for the hypothesized model positing that autonomous academic motivation mediates the academic self-concept–academic achievement relation. Results are discussed in light of self-determination theory and self-concept theory.     

Disciplinary Networks and Bounding: Scientific Communication Between Science and Technology Studies and the History of Science

This article examines the communication networks within and between science and technology studies (STS) and the history of science. In particular, journal relatedness data are used to analyze some of the structural features of their disciplinary identities and relationships. The results first show that, although the history of science is more than half a century older than STS, the size of the STS network is more than twice that of the history of science network. Further, while a majority of the journals in the STS network are connected by weak ties, about half of the history of science network consists of strong ties. The history of science network is thus more cohesive than the STS network. The relatively strong cohesion within the history of science network is associated with comparatively high degrees of intra-disciplinary communication, but comparatively weak ties to only a few related disciplines. The analysis also shows that very few members of the history of science cliques are situated on the shortest path between both specialties. Moreover, given the relatively impermeable nature of the history of science network, the latter partially depends on STS to reach some of the neighboring disciplines.     

Computer-aided Engineering Education and Technical Management

The computer-aided engineering (CAE) system gives an engineer a set of powerful new tools for proper realization of his/her design tasks. Therefore, it is also necessary to accept this methodological development adequately within the engineering curriculum of technical universities in the successful education of the new generation of engineers. CAE methodology influences all areas of an engineer's work and should be accompanied by principal changes in the traditionally used methods of engineering education. But the student's use of computer tools within many engineering disciplines hides the danger of gaining practical skills by means of the computer instead of traditional educational goals concerning the proper understanding of the solution principles of technical problems. Sometimes the students are not able to recognize the significance of, for example, software development problems or engineer workstation organization problems, in view of the main goal of engineering design—to develop a new technical system. To avoid this danger it is necessary to present methods of technical management as an integral part of CAE education. Such orientation has an important role within an engineer's education in the twentieth century.     

Making a modernist pedagogy: changes in elementary and pre-elementary schooling

Present primary public education in France originated in the école républicaine of the nineteenth century. Starting in the 1960s, the primary school has become integrated into a system of education, with virtually all children now attending pre-elementary and secondary education. These structural changes have led to important alterations in the curriculum of pre-elementary and elementary schools: their traditional pedagogical specificity has diminished in response to a relatively new requirement of curriculum continuity and the overall aim of preparing for future schooling. On the whole, however, this level of schooling is characterized by modernistic pedagogy, the importance it gives to children's harmonious growth and the psycho-affective nature of the teacher-pupil relationship. Although inequalities in socio-economic status between children have not disappeared, new directives aim to limit the inegalitarian mechanisms at work through decentralized compensatory measures and teamwork inside schools.     

Academic Mentoring and Dropout Prevention for Students in Math,Science and Technology

In this study, we examined the impact of a new academic mentoring program aimed at preventing student dropout in math, science and technology. The MIRES program entails bimonthly meetings between students entering college and university students completing their undergraduate degree in science and engineering. A randomized pretest-posttest control group design was used to evaluate the program’s short-term impact. At the end of the program, mentees (n = 150) presented significantly higher levels of motivation, a more positive career decision profile and enhanced institutional attachment and social adjustment than students in the control group (n = 157). MIRES mentees also showed success and persistence rates (mainly male participants) that were significantly higher than those of students in the control group.     

The emotions aroused by a vocational transition in adolescents: why,when and how are they socially shared with significant others?

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - Adolescents (N = 359) completed a self-report questionnaire assessing the emotional impact of an...     

Is syllable segmentation developmentally constrained by consonant sonority within syllable boundaries in silent reading? Evidence in French children

There is agreement that French typically reading children use syllable‐sized units to segment words. Although the statistical properties of the initial syllables or the clusters within syllable boundaries seem to be crucial for syllable segmentation, little is known about the role of consonant sonority in silent reading. In two experiments that used audio‐visual and visual pseudoword recognition tasks with 300 French typically developing children, we showed a progressive increase in the use of syllable segmentation from the first through fifth years of reading instruction. The children were influenced both by an optimal ‘sonorant coda–obstruent onset’ sonority profile and by the individual position‐dependent consonant sonority within syllable boundaries. Orthographic and phonological statistical properties did not clearly modulate the response patterns. We provide innovative data to help further understand the developmental course of the use of syllable segmentation as determined by sonority. We discuss our results in the light of linguistic principles.