An investigation of the stability and variability in young children's self-regulated learning behaviors in kindergarten

The authors examined the relative stability and variability of self-regulated learning (SRL) in kindergartners across various contexts (teacher-directed activities, small-group work, and independent work). They assessed the role of temperament and context on children's use of SRL while seeking to identify if there are optimal contexts for promoting SRL in particular children. The results revealed that although temperament was not related to SRL, children's regulation strategy usage was heavily dependent on context, contradicting the idea that children are either high or low self-regulators. The relative stability of SRL varied by child, with some children showing more sensitivity to context than did others. Optimal contexts for eliciting SRL also differed by children, with some children exhibiting elevated regulation during small-group activities and others during teacher-directed activities.     

Collaborative sense-making in print and digital text environments

This study describes the sense-making behaviors of sixth- and seventh-grade students (n = 46 dyads) as they read and discussed expository articles in print and digital formats. Most dyads approached the digital text as if it were static and linear, despite the availability of hyperlinks. Reading through (or covering) the text was the most commonly observed behavior, occurring in 89% of the coded intervals in the print condition and 76% of intervals in the digital condition. Students were observed discussing a variety of cognitive and metacognitive strategies. The most common strategies were process monitoring, summarizing, connecting, and reacting. The dyads used at least one overt sense-making strategy in about 50% of the intervals when reading the print text and about 65% of the intervals with the digital text. Previewing and progress monitoring, which serve important planning and self-regulative functions, were used more frequently in the digital condition. Regression analyses show that several collaborative behaviors were associated with text comprehension, as measured by a researcher-designed multiple choice test, in the print condition but not in the digital condition. These included word recognition monitoring (β = 1.84; SE = 0.90; p = .05), summarizing (β = 2.43; SE = 1.21; p = .05), and connecting (β = −5.20; SE = 2.06; p = .02) at the student level and attending to illustrations (γ = −7.08; SE = 2.17; p = .003) at the dyad level. In both conditions, prior reading achievement and prior knowledge were strong predictors of comprehension.     

A STRENGTHENED EUROPE AS A FACTOR IN THE INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION: A UNESCO VISION

Beginning with general considerations about the vocation and role of UNESCO with regard to the promotion of higher education, the article zeroes in on the specific activities of CEPES, the UNESCO European Centre for Higher Education in Bucharest, Romania. Some of these activities, which are presented in detail, involve the massive introduction of new information technologies and electronic communication links into the universities and the higher education systems of the region, particularly in eastern Europe. These will contribute greatly to the internationalization of education, one of the goals of UNESCO.     

RECOGNITION OF DIPLOMAS AND DEGREES: REPORT ON THE APPLICATION OF THE EUROPEAN DIPLOMA CONVENTION CONCLUDED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF UNESCO

The European Convention on the Recognition of Studies, Diplomas, and Degrees concerning Higher Education was adopted in 1979. Thirty‐two countries have signed it, and 28, including Australia, have ratified it. In addition to reporting on the obstacles encountered and the progress achieved with regard to adoption, this article also reports on various activities which took place and are continuing to take place as direct or indirect spin‐offs of the Convention. These include subregional conventions, bilateral agreements, meetings, and the creation of national information bodies. The role and activities of CEPES as the Secretariat of the Regional Committee for the Application of the Convention are described.     

UNVEILING THE HIDDEN INFORMATION IN CREDENTIALS: A PROPOSAL TO INTRODUCE A “SUPPLEMENT TO HIGHER EDUCATION DIPLOMAS”

As the world shrinks and becomes increasingly integrated with regard to the diffusion of technologies, the flow of educated personnel and the requirements both of higher education institutions and of employers, the twin questions of educational mobility and of mobility with regard to employment, are becoming increasingly important. A major barrier to the granting of equivalences is lack of information about the meaning and the value of academic credentials, diplomas, and degrees despite the creation of information centres in various countries and the formulation of various international equivalence agreements, including the Unesco regional conventions on equivalence and the recognition of diplomas and degrees of higher education. Programmes diversify; they undergo rapid change; there ¦ are so many exceptional cases, that general information devices cannot keep up to date. What the authors propose and describe is a supplement to be granted with each diploma, the items within it being sufficiently standardized so as to make the value of each corresponding diploma and credential transparent enough to facilitate the granting of equivalences.     

Mode 2 and the Tension Between Excellence and Utility: The Case of a Policy-Relevant Research Field in Sweden

This paper investigates the impact of changing science policy doctrines on the development of an academic field, working life research. Working life research is an interdisciplinary field of study in which researchers and stakeholders collaborated to produce relevant knowledge. The development of the field, we argue, was both facilitated and justified by the, at the time dominant, science policy orthodoxy in Sweden, sector research. Sector research science policy doctrine favoured stakeholder-driven research agendas in the fields relevant to the sector. This approach to agenda setting was highly contested by Swedish universities and left scientists vulnerable to the fallout from any conflicts arising among the stakeholder groupings that were part of the governance arrangement. Our case shows that working life research was in part a victim of the struggle between science and policy over who sets the agenda for science in Sweden. In this struggle, each side chose to use ‘scientific quality’ as a proxy for furth ing its respective interests and visions for how science should be governed. The paper argues that this case is of interest to the continued elaboration of the Mode 2 thesis and the debate about ‘relevant science’. We find that the close association with stakeholders and the concomitant dependence it created left working life research unable to defend itself against its critics and that this state of affairs was particularly problematic for social science research on working life.     

Practices Regarding Reporting of Reliability Coefficients: A Review of Three Journals

Practices regarding the reporting of reliability coefficients in 3 journals from 1990 to 1997 were examined. Given that scores, not tests, are reliable or unreliable, particular attention was paid to the provision of reliability coefficients computed for the data actually being analyzed in substantive studies. One third of the articles reviewed made no mention of reliability. Almost 36% of the articles provided reliability coefficients for the data being analyzed. Examples of good reporting practices are provided. In 2 of the 3 journals reviewed, there was little change in the frequency and style of reliability reporting in the period covered. The authors suggest a modification in editorial journal policies to bring about a change in reliability-coefficient reporting practices.     

牛仔裤风靡美国和全世界

本文讲述的是美国的一个现已遍及世界大部分地区的坚实象征。这一象征不是美元,甚至也不是可口可乐。它只是一条叫做蓝布牛仔裤的普普通通的裤子,这种裤子所象征的是亚历克西·德托克维尔所谓的“对平等的勇敢而正当的渴望……”不论是官员还是牛仔,银行家还是赖账者,时装设计师还是酒鬼,都同样喜欢它。它对任何人都一视同仁,不分阶级;凡是美国人都可以穿。然而它几乎在世界各地都备受青睐,包括俄罗斯,那儿的当局最近破获了一个在黑市上以每条200美元的价格倒卖牛仔裤的青少年团伙。牛仔裤已经流行了很长时间,看来生命力甚至会比领带还旺盛…     

REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON ACADEMIES IN TRANSITION

The organizers and sponsors of the Workshop are listed, and the names of some of the high‐level participants are cited. There were two full days of discussion including opening and closing sessions and seven working sessions, the topic of each onebeing cited. All aspects of the roles of national academies of sciences were considered and discussed. Among the important conclusions reached were that academies still had major scientific roles to play in their respective countries, that they should collaborate closely with universities with regard to research and the training of Ph.D.’s, that they should collaborate among themselves on an international basis, and that they should combat the phenomena of brain‐drain, on the one hand, and take steps, on the other hand, to make scientific careers attractive to young people.     

THE EUROPEANIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION: INTEGRATION AND DIVERSITY AS VIEWED FROM EASTERN EUROPE

The question asked by the authors is how best to build the common Europe of the Universities in the context, on one hand, of the establishment of the single market of the European Community countries and, on the other hand, the end of Communism in eastern Europe. That the universities of Europe as a whole will increasingly come together is a certainty; however, the process will be long and sometimes complicated. East and West need information on each other's universities and higher education systems, this for the myriad necessities of comparability and recognition. The West, in particular, needs a clear picture of what happened to eastern European universities during a period in excess of forty years during which they were very isolated. The authors illustrate many of the peculiarities of universities under communism with reference to the Romanian situation. However, the reader is cautioned that eastern Europeans themselves perceive as many differences among the universities of their various countries as similarities. Cooperation agreements, exchanges of teachers and of students, and other kinds of East‐West links will be established, and the result will be the greater affirmation of academic unity in diversity.