Size and efficiency

It has been long assumed that it takes some optimum size in order to obtain a sufficient critical mass to have an economy of scale operation, but there has been little substantive study of the topic. This paper looks at the relationship between enrollment and costs at colleges and universities. The question under study is whether large size provides economy of scale for operating. The question, unfortunately, is masked by the complexity of an institution. The manner in which complexity, size, costs, and enrollment interrelate is the substance of this paper. The findings suggest that curricula and complexity have an exceedingly important bearing on per-student costs.Paper presented at the Nineteenth Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, San Diego, California, May 1979.     

Did they sell their soul to the devil? Some comparative case-studies on academic entrepreneurs in the life sciences in Europe

This paper looks at eight comparative case-studies on academic entrepreneurs in life sciences conducted in Europe in 2008. The interviewees were selected from the KEINS database that lists all academic inventors from Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands who have one or more patent applications registered at the European Patent Office, 1978–2004. The case-studies show that institutions largely influence the way in which scientists are coping with the normative uncertainty typical of science and technology systemic boundaries in the life sciences today. By exploring new local solutions, the entrepreneurial achievements of scientists are also establishing new institutional practices. Our empirical analysis helps to reconsider traditional dichotomies in the sociological, economic and institutional literature, such as publications versus patents and academia versus industry, and to illustrate the creative role of academic entrepreneurs.     

The impact of verbal capacity on theory of mind in deaf and hard of hearing children

Even when they have good language skills, many children with hearing loss lag several years behind hearing children in the ability to grasp beliefs of others. The researchers sought to determine whether this lag results from difficulty with the verbal demands of tasks or from conceptual delays. The researchers related children's performance on a nonverbal theory of mind task to their scores on verbal aptitude tests. Twelve French children (average age about 10 years) with severe to profound hearing loss and 12 French hearing children (average about 7 years) were evaluated. The children with hearing loss showed persistent difficulty with theory of mind tasks, even a nonverbal task, presenting results similar to those of hearing 6-year-olds. Also, the children with hearing loss showed a correlation between language level (lexical and morphosyntactic) and understanding of false beliefs. No such correlation was found in the hearing children.     

Indigenous human rights and knowledge in archives, museums, and libraries: some international perspectives with specific reference to New Zealand and Canada

This article highlights the extent to which international law has changed rapidly in recent years in relation to the rights of Indigenous peoples generally and in particular how this impacts upon the legal status of traditional knowledge and culture. It reviews the recognition of the unique legal status of Māori in Aotearoa and Aboriginal peoples in Canada in relation to self-determination and how their changing place within these nations are affecting the operations of museums, libraries, and archives as case studies, illustrating some of the key legal and practical challenges that now impinge upon the work of archivists and related professionals in many countries.     

Serials Report

This article describes the 2012 libraries@cambridge conference, the annual conference of librarians working in the University, Faculty, Department, and College libraries that serve the University of Cambridge. It analyzes the impact of the conference papers on the future development of library services in Cambridge and by extension, similar institutions. Further, the authors contextualize the conference within the broader national future framework of the Research Libraries UK (RLUK) Strategic Plan “The Power of Knowledge” and the future role for subject librarians documented in the Research Information Network 2012 report “Re-skilling for Research: An Investigation into the Role and Skills of Subject and Liaison Librarians Required to Effectively Support the Evolving Needs of Researchers.”     

An interview with William M. Kunstler: Rebel Rhetor

Differential usage of the five bases of power as conceptualized by French and Raven (1968) were examined to determine which base(s) of power mediated the Management Communication Style (MCS) of a supervisor. In addition, the supervisor's communication of each type of power was examined for relationships with employee satisfaction. Two samples are employed, one a group of 250 public‐school teachers and the other a group of 171 managers representing banking, service industries, and a product‐based organization. Results indicate that both samples associated the communication of coercive power with a “boss‐centered,” tell‐type MCS and negative job satisfaction. Both samples responded positively to increased use of referent and expert power. Reward power seems to have little positive impact for either sample. Lastly, legitimate power had a negative impact on MCS for the management sample.     

Curriculum development in outdoor education: Tasmanian teachers’ perspectives on the new pre-tertiary Outdoor Leadership course

The paper examines how outdoor education teachers in Tasmania, Australia have implemented and perceive a new pre-tertiary Outdoor Leadership curriculum document. It draws on an analysis of in-depth semi-structured interviews with 11 outdoor education teachers. The results revealed that teachers were generally welcoming of the new higher-order curriculum and associated assessment strategies. They also believed that the new course appealed to a broad range of students, including those primarily focused on tertiary entrance scores, and that students were benefiting from the new curriculum. However, the teachers’ support was tempered by strong critique around the lack of direction in the actual curriculum document, the failure to provide a teaching resource document, concerns around assessment strategies as well as the lack of adequate professional development. Despite these critiques, the apparent short-term success of the roll-out has come from a strong community of practice among the outdoor educators. The results of this curriculum change process are analysed using a socio-cultural model. They are also considered in light of curriculum change processes in other marginalized curriculum areas, such as health and physical education. The implications are discussed in light of the marginalization of outdoor education within education circles at a state and federal level.     

Prosody and alignment: a sequential perspective

In their analysis of a corpus of classroom interactions in an inner city high school, Roth and Tobin describe how teachers and students accomplish interactional alignment by prosodically matching each other’s turns. Prosodic matching, and specific prosodic patterns are interpreted as signs of, and contributions to successful interactional outcomes and positive emotions. Lack of prosodic matching, and other specific prosodic patterns are interpreted as features of unsuccessful interactions, and negative emotions. This forum focuses on the article’s analysis of the relation between interpersonal alignment, emotion and prosody. It argues that prosodic matching, and other prosodic linking practices, play a primarily sequential role, i.e. one that displays the way in which participants place and design their turns in relation to other participants’ turns. Prosodic matching, rather than being a conversational action in itself, is argued to be an interactional practice (Schegloff 1997), which is not always employed for the accomplishment of ‘positive’, or aligning actions.