Oral and written references to new and given information by 9- and 11-year-olds and adults

Monolingual, native French-speaking subjects (9- and 11-year-old children and adults) were requested either to talk or write about nine triplets of pictures whose components varied along the pragmatic dimension «new vs. given information». In the first picture in each series, all components were new. In the second and third pictures, one component was replaced each time by a new component, the other components becoming given. The oral execution of the task made the experimenter (the addressee) into a co-producer of the situational discourse produced, whereas the written production situation placed a certain distance between the producer and the addressee. The expression of the contrast between old versus new elements to be described in each situation was studied by examining the use ofarticles (definite andindefinite) andpronouns. The expression of oldness and newness by means of articles was more common in speaking than in writing. In the oral medium, the given/new contrast was marked more and more often as age increased, although this was not true in the writing situation, where the subjects generally used definite articles, even when referring to a new element. Pronouns were used infrequently orally, particularly by 9-year-olds, to express the increasing «oldness» of the elements. The written use of pronouns was extremely rare. Although it was already present orally in older subjects, the tendency to give autonomy to the production associated with each picture (decreasing use of pronouns in favor of nouns) was predominant in the written medium. Maximum explicitness was favored in writing (due to the deferred reception of the production by the addressee), and the marking of elements as new or given was therefore not given priority. The way in which the written and oral production media modulated the choices of the subjects is discussed.     

Adult Recollections of Name-calling at School

A sample of 220 adults responded to a questionnaire on their recollections of name-calling and nicknames while at school. Hurtful names were reported by 141 participants, who described coping with them primarily by means of verbal retaliation or ignoring the names. Participants rarely told teachers and most stated that their school was unhelpful. Although the experience was regarded less negatively over time, this was not the case for those who reported finding the names most hurtful. These participants reported greater effects on all areas of school life and a stronger association of name-calling with physical bullying, and they rated their current feelings about the past experience as more negative. The most common content of names referred to physical appearance, play on the individual's own name, and animals, trends also found in studies of children and in research into teasing.     

AN APPROACH TO THE EVALUATION OF TEACHING COMPANY PROGRAMMES

In this paper we consider the problems associated with the evaluation of Teaching Company Programmes. These programmes involve Universities and Colleges, together with manufacturing companies, in efforts to improve manufacturing methods and to develop graduates for careers in manufacturing industry. We introduce a framework for the evaluation of these programmes and apply it to one in which the authors have been involved. The paper reports a number of results from the Teaching Company Programme involving Molins Ltd., Brunel University and Henley, the Management College.     

Correlation between performance in physics and prior mathematics knowledge

The final grade of 1403 students enrolled in the first semester of the introductory, pre-professional physics course has been correlated with performance on a precourse diagnostic test of mathematical skills. The students were from a total of eight different sections taught by six separate instructors over a three year time span. The student population has been separated into two groups, those who completed the course (913 students) and those who dropped (490 students). The drops were assigned a “projected final grade”based on performance up to date of withdrawal. The Pearson product-moment correlation for students who completed the course is 0.418 and correlation for the drops is 0.232. Both correlations are significant at the p < 0.001 level. This study suggests that prior mathematical ability is a primary influence on performance in the course, and has a secondary influence on the tendency to drop out of the course.     

Exploring indicators of engagement in online learning as applied to adolescent health prevention: a pilot study of REAL media

Educational technology research and development - Engagement is central to the effectiveness of online health messages and the related educational programs that aim to deliver these messages to the...     

Publication by men and women with same-sex and cross-sex PhD supervision

The rates at which men and women published during and after PhD training in psychology were compared for samples experiencing same-sex and cross-sex supervision. When allowance was made for the research productivity and impact of the supervisor, women supervised by women published at similar rates to women supervised by men. Similarly, men supervised by men did not publish on average more often than men supervised by women. Further, there was no difference in mean publication rate between men and women who had completed their PhD degrees in the same university under supervision of the same advisor. Although the analyses provides no evidence that publication is more frequent following same-sex than cross-sex supervision, the possibility that supervision by an advisor of the same sex advantages graduates in other ways needs to be assessed.     

Using Massively Multiplayer Online Role‐Playing Games for Online Learning

This article addresses the use of a massively multiplayer online role‐playing game (MMORPG) to foster communication and interaction and to facilitate cooperative learning in an online course. The authors delineate the definition and history of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), and describe current uses of MMORPGs in education, including their experiences with constructing and using the MMORPG Second Life. In addition, the authors detail with practical examples the process of using MMORPGs to support cooperative learning activities, and explore future uses and research questions for using MMORPGs in education and training.