Accounting for Cheating: An Evolving Theory and Emergent Themes

This study examines student responses to the question, “What circumstances, if any, could make cheating justified?” It then assesses how well those responses can be classified by existing theories and categories that emerge from a qualitative analysis of the data. Results show considerable support for techniques of neutralization, partial support for the accounts perspective, and further insights from emergent categories. Reasons offered by students as justifications for cheating serve both rational decision making and post-hoc rationalizations. Policies designed to promote academic integrity must address both of those. The rational decision making view suggests an implicit contract between instructor and student that offers opportunities for reducing cheating by clarifying expectations for students and by designing courses that live up to the instructor’s side of that contract. The rationalizing view reinforces the need for consistent enforcement of clear standards.     

Relative age effects in fitness testing in a general school sample: how relative are they?

When children or adolescents are grouped by age or year of birth, older individuals tend to outperform younger ones. These phenomena are known as relative age effects (RAEs). RAEs may result directly from differences in maturation, but may also be associated with psychological, pedagogic or other factors. In this article, we attempt to quantify RAEs in a simple fitness task and to identify the mechanisms operating.

Data come from a 5-year study of 2278 individuals that included repeated administrations of the 20 m shuttle run. We use mixed-effect modelling to characterise change over time and then examine residuals from these models for evidence of an effect for age relative to peers or for season of birth.

Age alone appears to account for RAEs in our sample, with no effects for age relative to peers or month of birth. Age grouping produces large disparities for girls under 12, moderate ones for boys of all ages and negligible ones for girls between 12 and 15.

RAEs for this task and population appear to arise from simple age differences. Similar methods may be useful in determining whether other explanations of RAEs are necessary in other contexts. Evaluation processes that take age into account have the potential to mitigate RAEs in general settings.     

Basic Irony: Examining the Foundations of School Mathematics With Preservice Teachers

This article reports on an inquiry into what tends to be taken for granted with regard to the teaching and learning of mathematics. The inquiry, undertaken in the context of a course on methods for mathematics teaching, was developed around an examination of the mathematical notions that infuse conventional theories of cognition and that permeate the structures and practices of school mathematics. In particular, concepts drawn from or aligned with Euclidean geometry were examined. Specifically, alternatives drawn from fractal geometry were explored. The importance of interrogating the often-transparent figurative underpinnings of our thinking about thinking is highlighted.     

Exploring the relationships between emotional intelligence and the use of knowledge transfer methods in the project environment

This exploratory investigation contributes empirical findings on the relationship between emotional intelligence and the use of knowledge transfer methods in the project environment. Emotional intelligence can be generally defined as the ability to effectively recognize and manage emotions to achieve individual and/or group objectives. Knowledge transfer has been generally defined as the process in which knowledge flows from knowledge sources to knowledge recipients. An exploratory hypothesis was tested using data collected from project managers and members of project teams from a variety of project-based organizations. The findings of this study suggest that there are noteworthy relationships between emotional intelligence factors and the use of specific methods to transfer knowledge within and across projects. The results of this investigation can be used by knowledge management researchers as a foundation for further research and development in the area of knowledge transfer and sharing in the project environment.     

The effect of government contracting on academic research: Does the source of funding affect scientific output?

The growing share of university research funded by industry has sparked concerns that academics will sacrifice traditional scholarly activities to pursue commercial goals. To investigate this concern, I examine the influence of an applied sponsor and consider limitations of the grant funding mechanism. A novel dataset tracks the careers of academic engineers and their relationships with this sponsor. I find that (a) researchers who maintain a relationship with the directed sponsor experience a decrease in publications implying that academics’ careers may be a function of the type of funding received, not only talent; (b) academic merit does not necessarily serve as a funding criterion for sponsors; and (c) citation and publication measures of academic output are often not useful proxies for short-term commercial or social value.