The association of perceived communication apprehension,shyness, and verbal aggression with perceptions of source credibility and affect in organizational and interpersonal contexts

This is a report of two studies that examined the association of receivers' perceptions of sources' levels of several communication traits (shyness, communication apprehension, verbal aggressiveness) with the receivers' reported levels of affect for the source (general affect and/or liking) and the receivers' perceptions of the sources' credibility (competence, trustworthiness, goodwill). Study 1 examined employees’ perceptions of their supervisor's communication trait behaviors in the organizational context, while Study 2 examined the students' perceptions of their roommate's communication trait behaviors in an interpersonal context. As predicted on the basis of previous theory and research, both perceived communication apprehension and perceived verbal aggressiveness of the source were found to be substantially negatively correlated with credibility and affect and/or liking reported by the receiver. Contrary to our hypothesis, perceived behavioral shyness was not meaningfully associated with either credibility or affect. It is concluded that these results provide important information for distinguishing between the theoretical constructs of shyness and communication apprehension and theory in this area in general.     

The Early College High School Initiative: An Overview of Five Evaluation Years

In 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation started the Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI). Through this initiative, more than 200 Early College Schools (ECSs) opened by fall 2009. All of the schools aim to provide underserved students access to college classes while in high school. This article will provide an overview of the first 6 years of the ECHSI, and key findings across 5 years of the ECHSI evaluation, in particular highlighting how participants have implemented the ECHSI's core principles. However, the ECS is not a rigid model, and this article describes the variations in ECS implementation. Finally, this article documents outcomes such as attendance, grade-to-grade progression and graduation rates, student performance on assessments, and college credit accrual.     

La zona de desarrollo próximo: donde cultura y conocimiento se generan mutuamente

RESUMEN

El artículo expone los distintos enfoques que nos llevan al estudio del conocimiento y del desarrollo cognitivo basado en la cultura, áreas de estudio que tradicionalmente se han disociado y estan íntimamente relacionadas. En particular se centra en: la teoría sociocultural de los procesos psicológicos de Vygotski; Leontiev y su concepto de “actividad”; y las aportaciones de la antropología cultural. El concepto “zona de desarrollo próximo”, acuñado por Vygotski, ha tenido muchas aplicaciones educativas y se han llevado a cabo muchas investigaciones psicoantropológicas. La adquisición de conductas culturalmente adecuadas es un proceso de interacción del niño con los adultos y es un proceso de interacción y aculturación. Desde esta perspectiva, el enfoque sociocultural ofrece el marco necesario para el estudio de diversas facetas de la naturaleza humana.     

Longitudinal Relations Among Language Skills,Anger Expression,and Regulatory Strategies in Early Childhood

Researchers have suggested that as children's language skill develops in early childhood, it comes to help children regulate their emotions (Cole, Armstrong, & Pemberton, 2010; Kopp, 1989), but the pathways by which this occurs have not been studied empirically. In a longitudinal study of 120 children from 18 to 48 months of age, associations among child language skill, observed anger expression, and regulatory strategies during a delay task were examined. Toddlers with better language skill, and whose language skill increased more over time, appeared less angry at 48 months and their anger declined more over time. Two regulatory strategies, support seeking and distraction, explained a portion of the variance in the association between language skill and anger expression after toddlerhood.     

Randomised controlled trial of incentives to improve attendance at adult literacy classes

Background: Incentives have been proposed as a method to improve attendance in adult literacy classes. In the UK, several areas have piloted the use of incentives to promote attendance at adult literacy classes. To date no rigorous evaluation of this policy has been undertaken. This paper describes (as far as we are aware) the only UK‐based randomised controlled trial to evaluate the use of financial incentives in order to promote attendance in classes for adult learners.

Methods: We used a cluster‐randomised design. Twenty‐nine adult literacy classes were randomised in two groups using minimisation. Intervention group learners received £5 (US$10) for each class attended. The main outcome was class attendance; the secondary outcome was literacy scores.

Results: After allocation, one class was found to be ineligible for the study. In the 28 remaining classes there was a statistically significant reduction of about 1.5 sessions (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.28, 2.79; p = 0.019) attended by the intervention group compared with control, after adjusting for cluster size and baseline scores. The difference in reading scores between the intervention and control group, conditioned on baseline scores, was ?2.38 (with controls scoring higher than the intervention group), but this difference was not statistically significant (95% CI ?7.40 to 2.57, p = 0.33).

Conclusion: Payments to attend adult literacy classes had an adverse effect on attendance. This trial needs urgent replication, ideally with a larger incentive, before this approach is widely used by policy makers.     

全面提高办刊质量 促进农业发展—— 《宁夏农林科技》 创刊50周年实践

综述了《宁夏农林科技》的办刊实践,结合地方特色论述了《宁夏农林科技》在服务本地经济建设、促进成果转化方面所发挥的作用,指出期刊存在的问题,并对未来发展提出了建议。     

柔性订购契约下的闭环供应链系统利润协调机制研究

研究柔性订购契约下具有单一生产商、单一零售商的闭环供应链系统的利润协调机制。建立了分散决策、集中决策的生产商、零售商利润模型,得到了两种决策模式下的最优订购量、生产商利润、零售商利润、闭环供应链系统利润;讨论了集中决策模式下,柔性订购契约与生产商、零售商利润的关系并提出利润协调机制;最后给出算例验证本文的理论成果。     

对中国乒乓球"海外兵团"现象的理性思考

运用文献资料法、逻辑分析法对中国乒乓球“海外兵团“现象的成因、对乒乓球运动发展的影响等进行了剖析,认为乒乓球“海外兵团“现象的形成是我国乒乓球运动发展水平较高、世界乒乓球运动发展不平衡以及世界体育交流的结果,提出应理性看待中国乒乓球“海外兵团“现象。     

基于集群创新的政策创新与设计研究

在分析总结我国产业集群发展演化和缺陷的基础上,提出了集群创新的三个路径、政策创新促进集群创新的"五轮驱动"机制,并从政府公共政策角度出发,提出并分析了馈式动态循环的政策设计流程.以此为基础,设计出一组以集群可持续发展为目标的政策设计框架.