The impact of a peer-tutoring program on quality standards in higher education

The purposes of this study were, on one had, to determine the impact of a peer tutoring program on preventing academic failure and dropouts among first-year students (N = 100), from Civil Engineering, Economics, Pharmacy, and Chemical Engineering careers; while, on the other hand, to identify the potential benefits of such tutoring program on the cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies and social skills of student mentors in their last year of studies or already in a postgraduate program (N = 41) at the University of Granada (Spain). After building and selecting the measurement instruments necessary to gather demographic and academic relevant information on both samples, and assigning first-year students to either an experimental or control group, the intervention consisted of ten 90-min tutoring sessions during the first semester lead by student tutors who, in turn, had undergone four 3-h training sessions on tutoring contents like planning and time management, cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies, motivational strategies and the use of materials designed ad hoc for this program. The results show differences in favour of the treatment group on grade point average, performance rate, success rate and learning strategies and, also, statistically significant pre-post differences for the tutors on learning strategies and social skills.     

Intrafamilial conflict and emotional well-being: a population based study among Icelandic adolescents

Objectives

During intrafamilial conflicts children are often innocent bystanders, caught in the crossfire. In such situations, they are at increased risk to become directly involved in abusive verbal behavior of the perpetrator, and exposed to being shouted or yelled at, threatened, rejected and even physically abused. The present study has two main objectives: (1) ascertain a national base rate of intrafamilial conflicts and physical violence at home among Icelandic adolescents; and (2) to investigate the association of witnessing and/or having been a part of intrafamilial conflict or physical violence at home with variables that relate to mental health and well-being.

Methods

The participants were 3,515 students, 14- and 15-year-old, in the national compulsory school system in Iceland. As a part of the 2003 ESPAD survey, each pupil was asked about experiences of severe verbal arguments and physical violence at home as well as their background, behaviors, and mental health assessed with the use of tested measurement scales such as the Symptom Distress Checklist 90 (SCL-90) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale.

Results

About 22% of the participants stated that they had witnessed a severe verbal argument between parents and 34% stated that they had been involved in a severe verbal argument with parents. This rate was slightly higher for girls compared to boys. All together 7% of adolescents had witnessed physical violence at home where an adult was involved and 6% of the participants stated that they had experiences of being involved in physical violence at home where an adult was involved. Witnessing or being involved in severe verbal arguments at home and/or witnessing or being involved in physical violence with an adult was significantly associated with greater levels of depression, anger, and anxiety, and negatively related with self-esteem (p < 0.01).

Conclusions

Many adolescents in Iceland witness severe parental verbal arguments or physical violence between adults in their homes and some are directly involved in such acts. It affects their long-term emotional and behavioral development and well-being.

Practice implications

Preventive measures have to be implemented at an early age and should include, but not be limited to, information on disciplining and upbringing of children and the negative impact of intrafamilial conflicts on the long-term health of their children. Due attention should be given to the health and well-being of children where such violence is known to occur.     

Experience of cooperative learning in engineering

The objective of this work is to share the authors’ experience towards a different mode of teaching/learning method. Cooperative learning (Jigsaw) was employed on the University of Vigo's fourth-year engineering students. The results of the experience show that cooperative learning is quite a viable alternative to the classical way of lecturing at the university when the number of students is not too high. The authors’ observation indicates that students did not show a lot of interest towards the new learning style but their resistance changed once they began the activity. The Jigsaw method has proved to be a useful tool for improving the learning process so that students have the opportunity to participate actively in the learning activities.     

黔川桂三省三大需求与经济增长关系的比较研究——基于对三省1990～2009年时间序列数据的检验

采用1990～2009年黔川桂三省各自三大需求与地区生产总值的时间序列数据,运用定性与定量相结合的研究方法,对三省三大需求与经济增长的关系进行了比较研究。研究结果显示:消费对三省经济增长的推动作用不断降低,但对贵州省经济增长的影响仍十分显著;投资对三省经济增长的推动作用不断提高,并已成为三省经济增长的最主要动力。从经济增长方式上看,贵州已由消费主导型变为消费、投资并重的方式;四川由消费驱动为主、投资驱动为辅变为投资驱动为主、消费驱动为辅的方式;广西也由消费主导型变为投资驱动为主、消费驱动为辅的方式。另外,出口对三省经济增长的推动作用不明显。     

The rating of perceived exertion predicts intermittent vertical jump demand and performance

The aims of this study were (a) to assess the ability of the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) to predict performance (i.e. number of vertical jumps performed to a fixed jump height) of an intermittent vertical jump exercise, and (b) to determine the ability of RPE to describe the physiological demand of such exercise. Eight healthy men performed intermittent vertical jumps with rest periods of 4, 5, and 6 s until fatigue. Heart rate and RPE were recorded every five jumps throughout the sessions. The number of vertical jumps performed was also recorded. Random coefficient growth curve analysis identified relationships between the number of vertical jumps and both RPE and heart rate for which there were similar slopes. In addition, there were no differences between individual slopes and the mean slope for either RPE or heart rate. Moreover, RPE and number of jumps were highly correlated throughout all sessions (r = 0.97-0.99; P < 0.001), as were RPE and heart rate (r = 0.93-0.97; P < 0.001). The findings suggest that RPE can both predict the performance of intermittent vertical jump exercise and describe the physiological demands of such exercise.     

国家实验室的跨机构资源管理模式： 美国案例分析及启示

为探索我国国家实验室运营管理制度建设路径,从资源管理模式入手,运用案例分析、对比研究等方法,研究美国"大学-国家实验室"合作交互模式.首先,选取麻省理工学院与林肯实验室、卡耐基梅隆大学与软件工程研究所以及加州大学与劳伦斯伯克利实验室3个典型案例,以财务、项目、人员为主要线索,分析资源管理路径中的关键节点和模式特征;其次,对比分析3类资源管理模式的共性与差异,讨论不同管理模式相对优势、选用原因与适用范围;最后,结合国外科研管理先进经验和我国国家实验室运营管理制度建设实际,提出精准匹配大学与国家实验室资源、打通底层资源结算系统、多元化"大学-国家实验室"资源互动模式因事施策、打造基础研究与实战应用有机结合的科研人才梯队等启示建议.     

Public libraries embrace citizen science: Strengths and challenges

Can public libraries become hubs for citizen science? In line with the principles of citizen science, this question was answered collaboratively with librarians from the Barcelona Network of Public Libraries who performed two hands-on activities. One activity was a training course taken by 30 librarians from 24 different libraries which enabled them to envisage citizen science implementation at each library. The other activity consisted of co-creating a citizen social science project and involved 40 library users, seven librarians from three different cities, and professional scientists. The analysis considers the perspectives of both librarians and users, through participant observation, surveys, and a focus group to identify strengths and challenges. The overall results suggest that public libraries can offer leadership in the promotion of citizen science and contribute to the mission of public libraries to act as local community hubs. The main challenges identified were related to the complexity of collaboration, uncertainty regarding research co-creation, and participant retention strategies.