Make or Buy? A Qualitative Analysis of the Organisational Handling of Digital Innovations in the German Book Publishing Sector

Traditional media have been changing in response to digitisation processes and the spread of the internet. This article looks at the consequences of technological change for the organisational structures of publishing houses in Germany, most of which are small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Following any decision to produce digital content, new tasks emerge which need to be fulfilled and publishing houses have to re-allocate appropriate responsibilities. The context of the preference for in-house or for external production is explored as is the precise identification of the managerial and technical skills demanded by a switch to digital publishing. The findings suggest the important role of strategic partnerships with service providers as well as with other publishing houses, especially for larger projects beyond the capabilities of SMEs.     

Internationale Hochschulrankings

Despite disagreement about their validity, reliability and effects, international rankings of universities have become widely used by students and higher education institutions. This article compares three international rankings of universities and analyzes, based on the academic literature, the extent to which they assess relevant aspects of teaching and research and whether these aspects are measured adequately. We study the Academic Ranking of World Universities published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the World University Ranking published by the British magazine Times Higher Education Supplement and the Excellence Ranking published by the German Centre for Higher Education Development (CHE). The analysis is based on the academic literature about these international rankings and the publications by the rankings’ publishers. We draw conclusions about the design of rankings and develop further research questions.     

Filipino parents’ school choice and loyalty: a factor analysis

This quantitative study aims to ascertain the significant relationship existing between parents’ profile, and their school choice and school loyalty. Data were gathered using the researcher’s two-part made instrument. Respondents were first asked to fill in a robotfoto for purpose of profiling their baseline characteristics and were later asked to rate listed indicators, using a modified 8-point Likert scale. Using statistical tools such as the ANOVA, factor analysis, correlation, mean, and standard deviation, data were treated indepth. It is interesting to note that although parents are loyal to their alma mater, this does not have a much impact on their choice of school for their children. On the whole, parents’ choice of school is based on its indispensable qualities. Among the three interval-scale profiles of the parent respondents such as age, income, tuition fee payment and number of children, none of these relate to school choice, but age, income, and tuition fee payment negatively relate to school loyalty. From their nominal-scale profiles, significant differences were noted in their school choice when grouped according to civil status, place of work, and terms of payment. With respect to school loyalty, significant differences occurred in their responses when classified according to gender, terms of payment and their active participation in the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA).     

Zooming in Time—Exploring Students’ Interpretations of a Dynamic Tree of Life

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Central to evolution is the concept of a common ancestry from which all life has emerged over immense time scales, but learning and teaching temporal...     

College Students’ Time Management: a Self-Regulated Learning Perspective

Educational Psychology Review - Despite its recognized importance for academic success, much of the research investigating time management has proceeded without regard to a comprehensive...     

Student Reasoning About the Lever Principle Through Multimodal Representations: a Socio-Semiotic Approach

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education - There is increasing recognition of the multimodal representational nature of science discovery practices and the roles of multiple and...     

Peer and self-assessment applied to oral presentations from a multidisciplinary perspective

This article analyses the use of peer and self-assessment in oral presentations as complementary tools to assessment by the professor. The analysis is based on a study conducted at the University of Girona (Spain) in seven different degree subjects and fields of knowledge. We designed and implemented two instruments to measure students’ peer and self-assessment, and a rubric to guide the assessment process. Results were compared with the marks awarded by the professor. In contrast with studies by other authors, which show a high correlation between these different assessment systems, our study revealed significant deviations. Applying peer and self-assessment to oral presentation activities also demonstrates their formative value above and beyond their summative usefulness.     

Choosing and leaving science in highly selective institutions

This study sought to discover some of the causes of initial interset in and atrition from the natural sciences and engineering among the students (N=5320) who entered four highly selective institutions in 1988, with particular attention to possible special causes for the disproportionate attrition of women from science. Though a smaller proportion of women (35 percent) than men (49 percent) were initially interested in science, gender added little to the prediction of such initial choice when preadmission measures of developed abilities were taken into account in regression analysis. Of the group of 2,276 students initially interested in science, 40 percent did not finally concentrate in science, and smaller proportions of women (48 percent) than of men (66 percent) persisted. The most significant cognitive, factor predicting these losses was low grades earned in science courses taken during the first two years of study. With grades held equal, gender was not a significant predictor of persistence in engineering and biology; gender added strongly to grades, however, as a factor associated with unusually large losses of women from a category that included the physical sciences and mathematics. Responses to a questionnaire administered in the fall of 1991 showed that science majors regarded their instruction as too competitive, with too few opportunities to ask questions, taught by professors who were relatively unresponsive, not dedicated, and not motivating. Students who defected from science did so largely because of the attraction of other fields, but many shared the criticism of overcompetitiveness and inferior instruction, along with the view that the work was too difficult. Several items were about elements of classroom instruction and atmosphere thought to be especially difficult for women (i.e., the chilly climate), but except for perceived competitiveness, women did not rate their classroom experiences as being more unpleasant than did men. This research was supported by grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National Science Foundation.     

Cognitive and linguistic constraints on phoneme isolation in Dutch kindergartners

This study investigated whether task instructions affect sound-isolation performance. The effects of phoneme class and phoneme position were also assessed. Two hundred Dutch kindergartners were presented with a free-sound-isolation task and its constrained counterparts: an initial-, a middle-, and a final-sound-isolation task. All tasks contained 17 CVC words. Children's performance on the free-sound-isolation task was better than on the constrained tasks. On all four tasks, children made fewer errors in isolating the initial phoneme than the final phoneme. Isolating the middle phoneme proved to be the most demanding. The effect of phoneme class depended on the type of task and on phoneme position. Findings were placed against the background of sonority and word-final phoneme vocalization in Dutch.     

“Tell me about”: a logbook of teachers’ changes from face-to-face to distance mathematics education

Educational Studies in Mathematics - In 2020, the emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic brought a drastic and sudden change in teaching practices, from the physical space of the classrooms to the...