The ceiling to coproduction in university–industry research collaboration

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into government attempts at bridging the divide between theory and practice through university–industry research collaboration modelled under engaged scholarship. The findings are based on data sourced from interviews with 47 academic and industry project leaders from 23 large-scale research projects. The paper demonstrates a ceiling to the coproduction of knowledge arising from the preconceived beliefs of both academics and industry partners regarding project roles and responsibilities. The findings show that coproduction was constrained by academic partners assuming control over much of the research activities and industry partners failing to confront or challenge academic decision-making because both academics and industry partners placed a higher value on academic knowledge compared with applied or practical knowledge. It is argued the theory of engaged scholarship, and consequent initiatives to encourage engaged scholarship, fail to account for the superior status of academic knowledge.     

Marriage, adult adjustment, and early parenting

The impact of parents' marriages, measured prenatally, on their parenting of firstborn, 3-month-old infants was assessed. Though the association between marriage and parenting was the focus, adult psychological adjustment was measured also to rule out the alternative hypothesis that psychological adjustment relates to both marital quality and parenting quality and accounts for any association between them. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses in which parental adjustment was entered first as a covariate were used to test the relation between close/confiding marriages and parenting of 3-month-old infants. From the findings, it was concluded that even when differences in individual psychological adjustment are taken into account, mothers are warmer and more sensitive with their infants and fathers hold more positive attitudes toward their infants and their roles as parents when they are in close/confiding marriages. It is asserted that qualities of marriage play an important part in the development of parent-child relationships.     

The concentration of commercial success in popular music: An analysis of the distribution of gold records

This paper examines whether commercial success in the popular recorded-music industry, as measured by gold-record output, conforms to an empirical concentration. We find that Lotka's Law overestimates the number of artists with one gold record and underestimates the number of multiplegold-record performing artists. However, for all measures of successful records, theGeneralized Lotka's Law provides an excellent fit, which suggests that the number of performers producingn gold records in about 1/n ^c of those producing one gold record.     

Unfolding narrative meaning over time: The contributions of mother–daughter conversations of difficulty on daughter narrative sense-making and well-being

Recent narrative theorizing suggests that humans process their difficult experiences by not only creating stories—called individual narrative sense-making (NSM)—but also by telling those stories with others—called communicated narrative sense-making (CNSM). The present study investigated the relationship between individual and communicated NSM to understand the effects of interpersonal communication on intrapersonal meaning-making and well-being. In this longitudinal, laboratory-based study, 62 mother–daughter pairs wrote and discussed stories of daughters’ difficulty. Findings revealed that CNSM—particularly turn-taking, coherence, and daughters’ perspective-taking—predicted increased positivity in daughters’ stories over time, suggesting that CNSM contributes to “re-authoring” of individual stories. Limited effects emerged for CNSM and well-being. Findings expanded knowledge about the interconnections between intrapersonal and interpersonal communication, and well-being.     

The Human Figure Drawings of Normal Children and Those with Mild Learning Difficulties

The human figure drawings of 18 children with mild learning difficulties (MLD) were compared with those of 18 children with the same chronological age (mean 10 years, 4 months) and those of 18 children with the same mental age (mean 6 years, 0 months). The MLD children's drawings were similar to those of the 6‐year‐olds in terms of the number of developmental items they displayed; both these groups scored significantly lower than the 10‐year‐olds. Teachers could easily distinguish the 10‐year‐olds’ figures, but not those drawn by the MLD children and the 6‐year‐olds; they routinely confused the two. These findings suggest that, although their development is slower, MLD children follow a normal rather than a deviant developmental pattern.     

Using a Spreadsheet to Process and Analyse Student Marks

This paper shows the use of a spreadsheet to process and analyse student assessment marks. The ideas are illustrated with examples from data for a first year programming subject, but the processing and analysis functions apply to many other assessment situations. The functions described are data collection and control, allocating grades, checking consistency across tutorials and analysing relationships between items of assessment and grades. The paper shows how to derive information from assessment marks with a widely available, inexpensive computer tool. The work is part of an ongoing project to raise the awareness of assessors to the possibilities of marks analysis to improve subsequent decisions.     

Profiling the Audience for Self-Transcendent Media: A National Survey

This article reports the findings from a national survey of self-transcendent (or inspiring) media audience members in the United States. Exposure to self-transcendent content is socially significant because, theoretically, it can orient users toward matters beyond themselves, ultimately promoting connections with others and altruistic behaviors. However, to date, little is known about the daily audiences for such fare. Four primary questions guided the investigation: (a) What are the media sources and contents identified as “inspiring” by the audience? (b) Who makes up the current U.S. audience for self-transcendent media content? (c) What personality traits and viewer characteristics are associated with self-transcendent media consumption? and (d) What prosocial and altruistic behaviors are associated with self-transcendent media consumption? To address these questions, a nationally representative survey (n = 3,006) was conducted. The findings are discussed in relation to the growing body of scholarship on positive media psychology.     

Moving on: A cooperative study of student transfer

With no statewide student tracking system in place for California's tripartite postsecondary education system, three of the state's leading institutions joined in a study of the effectiveness of student transfer—the bridge between community college and university-level education. Transfer success was measured by student preparation, persistence, and performance both before and after transfer. The study examined whether the need for remediation before transfer affected students' progress and degree attainment. The findings run counter to the traditional notion that few remedial students persevere and transfer. A comparison of graduation rates with other community college transfers and with native university students indicated these transfers performed better.Presented at the Thirty-first Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, San Francisco, May 26–29, 1991.     

Support Personnel: Attitudes Toward Functions and Training Responsibility

This study was conducted to determine (a) if the heads of counselor education programs agree on what functions are appropriate for support personnel assisting secondary school counselors, and (b) who should take the responsibility for their training. Questionnaire replies were received from 128 (64.0 percent) of the 200 heads of counselor education programs queried. The respondents were asked to examine a list of 17 functions and (a) indicate if they were appropriate, and (b) specify if counselors, counselor educators, or city/state directors should be responsible for training support personnel to perform each appropriate function. There was significant agreement (X², d = .01) among them on both questions. Ten of 17 functions were considered appropriate; the counselor was perceived as having the major responsibility for training. A small segment of the sample (11.7 percent) was engaged in training support personnel.     

What information handling skills are promoted by the use of data analysis software?

This paper describes an investigation of secondary school pupils using data analysis software in their science lessons. The aim of the project was to determine the nature and complexity of data analysis tasks that could be mastered by pupils aged between 13 and 14 years, through the use of data analysis software. The research project involved the study of three matched experimental and control pairs of classes of pupils analysing scientifically- based data. The findings show that pupils using computer-based software can perform a range of complex tasks, including the use of Boolean logical operators, 'and', 'greater than' and 'less than', which are more intellectually advanced than reported by other researchers. These results show that given appropriate information technology (IT)-based data analysis tools, pupils as young as 13--14 can perform such complex data analysis tasks as classifying data according to one or more criteria and then ranking data according to a different criterion. This contradicts some of the earlier research that concluded that such tasks could not be easily achieved by pupils of this age