Organizational Features of Argumentative Composition: A Singapore Study

This study analyses a corpus of argumentative compositions in order to isolate the features of organization pertinent to this genre of writing. A further aim is to compare compositions written by “A” level students and English teachers in order to highlight specific shortcomings of the former. Despite using more cohesive devices and an overabundance of lexical repetition, student writing is less coherent. This is largely because of a lack of global links (between paragraphs), and an inability to properly utilize given information in structuring non-narrative writing. Finally, student writing suffers from presentation of content at the expense of discussion of issue and weighing of views.     

Financing higher education in Pakistan

A recent shift in the allocation of public expenditure towards higher education prompts several questions: Is this allocation economically justified? Are these resources well utilized? Is there significant cost recovery of these expenditures? If not, who benefits from the subsidy these expenditures represent? Are there alternative means of financing higher education? This paper attempts to provide answers to these questions, which can be briefly summarized as follows: Estimates of social rates of returns do not support the reallocation of public expenditures away from primary towards higher education; low retention rates and high failure rates suggest that the internal efficiency in the utilization of these expenditures is low; currently, almost all public expenditures on higher education represent a subsidy; given the tax burden and enrollment ratios by income group, the lower income groups seem to be gaining most from these subsidies; a start has been made at private sector higher education with the opening of two professional universities, but the prospects of general universities currently opening appears to be dim. Pakistan has a well designed loan program in operation although its quantitative impact is currently limited.     

Three dimensional couette flow and heat transfer through a porous medium with variable permeability

This paper reports research on the effects of variations in injection velocity and permeability on the heat transfer and flow through a highly porous medium between two horizontal parallel plates situated at constant distance with constant suction by the upper plate. Due to this type of variation in injection velocity and in permeability the flow becomes three dimensional. The governing equations are solved by adopting complex variable notations to obtain the expressions for the velocity and temperature field. The skin-friction along the main flow direction and rate of heat transfer are discussed with the help of graphs.     

ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION OF INTELLECTUALLY GIFTED STUDENTS WHEN CONFRONTED WITH CHALLENGING AND UNCHALLENGING TASKS

Two groups of gifted adolescents solved two similar intelligence tests with differing levels of task difficulty in reverse order. Under both conditions the performance level on the less complex test was much lower, a result not observed in a control group of average intelligence. Behavioural observations revealed that the low performance of the gifted students was combined with lack of effort. This performance pattern is discussed with respect to recent postulates of achievement motivation theory, which empasize the impact not only of the achievement motive, but also of the informational value of a given task for evaluating own level of ability. It is argued that the perceived informational value of the easier test was not high enough to create an incentive for the gifted students to perform at the highest possible level