Effects of GO FASTER on Morpheme Definition Fluency for High School Students with High‐Incidence Disabilities

Although vocabulary plays an important role in literacy and content instruction, there is a paucity of research identifying effective methods for teaching vocabulary. One promising strategy is morphemic analysis, which involves breaking words into morphemes, the smallest meaningful parts of words, and teaching students the meanings of those parts. The current study used a multiple probe across morphemes experimental design to determine the effects of an intervention package, GO FASTER (G raphic O rganizers; F lashcards A dded up and S elf‐graphed to T rack progress; E rrors R eviewed). Findings showed that with three to four instructional sessions, three high school students with high‐incidence disabilities successfully defined morphemes at a predetermined fluency rate and generalized these definitions to untaught words. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

Information-sharing in academia and the industry: A comparative study

This paper investigates how scientists decide whether to share information with their colleagues or not. Detailed data on the decisions of 1694 bio-scientists allow to detect similarities and differences between academia-based and industry-based scientists. Arguments from social capital theory are applied to explain why individuals share information even at (temporary) personal cost. In both realms, the results suggest that the likelihood of sharing decreases with the competitive value of the requested information. Factors related to social capital, i.e., expected reciprocity and the extent to which a scientist's community conforms to the norm of open science, either directly affect information-sharing or moderate competitive interest considerations on information-sharing. The effect depends on the system to which a scientist belongs.     

How patenting informs VC investors – The case of biotechnology

In the presence of asymmetric information, economic agents need to communicate their quality to investors and other parties. This paper investigates how information generated during the patenting process affects the ability of new ventures to attract VC financing. While much of the literature on information asymmetries focuses on patent applications, we argue that the entire examination process should be considered, including information that emerges in the course of patent examination and review. We test several hypotheses using a sample of British and German companies that seek venture capital. We find that the filing of patent applications is positively related to VC financing. Moreover, the examination process at the patent office generates valuable technological and commercial information via search reports, citations and opposition procedures which affect the likelihood of VC financing. Our results suggest that the patenting process supports investors in updating their expectations regarding the quality of new ventures.     

How University Teaching Award Winners Conceptualise Academic Work: Some further thoughts on the meaning of scholarship

Following personal construct theory (Kelly, 1955), a repertory grid was administered to 58 university teachers with the goal of identifying their implicit conceptualisations of academic work. The 58 individual grids were aggregated to form a consensus grid. This consensus grid was subjected to a principal component factor analysis to identify the underlying pattern of relationships that these professors see between the activities they typically associate with academic work. The main consideration underlying this exploratory study was that these conceptualisations may shed some new insight on two important relationships discussed in the higher education literature: between the processes and products of academic work on the one hand, and between teaching and research on the other. The results are discussed in relation to both the traditional, and more recent conceptions of scholarship and academic work.     

Lecturers’ and students’ conceptions of authenticity in teaching and actual teacher actions and attributes students perceive as helpful

This study investigated an under-explored area in the field of academic practice: the meaning of the complex notion of authenticity in teaching. Combining conceptual with empirical investigation, data included philosophical texts, repertory grid interviews with fifty-five lecturers and students from Law, Physics and English Literature, and fourteen focus groups with forty-six students. Philosophical conceptions were compared to those held by students and lecturers. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of repertory grids revealed differences in experts’/philosophers’ and lay-people’s conceptions of authenticity and additionally showed how lecturers’ and students’ conceptions of authenticity in teaching differed from their conceptions of teaching effectiveness. Focus groups identified linkages between authenticity in teaching and actual teacher actions and attributes that students perceive as being conducive to their learning. The findings enhance the meaning of authenticity, show how it matters in university teaching and offer a hitherto lacking theoretical foundation for further research.     

Powerful tasks: A contribution to a high level of acting and reflecting in mathematics instruction

Mathematics instruction contains two conflicting demands: on the one hand, the demand for economical efficiency and for well-developed motorways and, on the other hand, the demand that pupils should investigate and discover for themselves and have the freedom to pave their own ways. It is argued that tasks with a certain richness and quality offer some steps towards a constructive handling of this dilemma. The author tries to develop some properties of powerful tasks and to sketch the structure and philosophy of one concrete system of powerful tasks for the concept of angle. The main part of this paper presents seven examples of powerful tasks: five from the system of tasks and two with regard to pupils' working with 2-D-graphic systems. The construction of powerful tasks is viewed as a valuable contribution to bringing the theory and practice of mathematics education closer together.     

The Relationship between Students' Course Perception and their Approaches to Studying in Undergraduate Science Courses: A Canadian experience

Research on students' approaches to learning in higher education has consistently demonstrated strong relationships between approaches to studying and perceptions of the learning environment. The vast majority of these studies have been carried out with Australian and British students. Using the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) and the Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ), this study investigated these relationships with a large sample of Canadian undergraduates. The factor structure of the ASSIST was confirmed at the main scale level. The factor structure of the CEQ was largely confirmed, though some small changes were noted. Previous findings of significant correlations between approaches and CEQ scales were supported. The strongest relationships were found between heavy workload/inappropriate assessment and surface approach, and between generic skills and deep approach. Consistent with other studies, age was found to be a significant variable with regard to approaches. Implications for the practice of higher education staff development are discussed.     

Possibilities of altering arm and shoulder muscle activation in a static therapeutic climbing exercise through arm position,hand support and wall inclination

The aim of the study was to quantify the activation of arm and shoulder muscles during a static therapeutic climbing exercise and to investigate the possibility of altering the muscle activation through arm position (Jug, Undercling, Sidepull internal rotated, Sidepull external rotated), hand support (one-handed, double-handed) and wall inclination (0°, 12°). Electromyographic (EMG) activity of 14 healthy, climbing unexperienced males for the right m. biceps brachii (BB), m. serratus anterior (SA), m. upper, middle and lower trapezius (UT, MT, LT) showed mainly low to moderate EMG activation levels (BB: 4.1–40.1% maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC), SA: 4.5–24.5% MVIC, UT: 1.3–28.0% MVIC, MT: 8.6–47.1% MVIC, LT: 3.8–47.3% MVIC). Significant differences occurred between the four arm positions for the UT and LT. The one-handed support revealed significant higher muscle activation than the double-handed support in every condition except for SA in Undercling arm position at 12° wall inclination. Increasing the wall inclination (from 0° to 12° overhang) led to a significant increase in muscle activation in nearly every exercise variation and muscle. These findings suggest that arm position, hand support and wall inclination are appropriate possibilities of altering muscle activation patterns in therapeutic climbing.