Measuring the relationship between two questionnaires: appropriate definitions of intuitive understandings

A number of recent articles have claimed strong relationships—i.e., very high ‘proportions of shared variance’—between pairs of teaching and learning questionnaires. These claims have been the subject of debate and it has emerged that the proportion of shared variance is defined as the complement of Wilks’ lambda. The present article argues that this is not an appropriate measure for the data being analyzed. First some intuitive understandings of the situation are developed. A case study finds that the (Wilks‐based) proportion of shared variance between two questionnaires is 79%, but that the first questionnaire explains only 27% of the variance in the second and the second explains only 40% of the variance in the first. The technical literature is then considered and alternatives to the complement of Wilks’ lambda are recommended as measures of the relationship between two sets of variables.     

A View on the Current Situation in Russian Education

This paper reflects the current state in Russian education which has a strong correlation with the socio-economic crisis. The responsibilities for education are held partially by the state and partly by other social institutions and as a whole, all of them form the system of education. There is a rather wide set of laws, decree statements, and rules about education in Russia, but they currently are far removed from practical realization. The situation with financing educators, schools, and universities is very critical at present in Russia. The idea of differentiation and democratization in School Reform has had both positive and negative effects. To rescue the Russian system of education from a crisis, a strong state policy in education and a strong system of implementation are required. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

How is radial arm maze behavior in rats related to locomotor search tactics?

Norway rats have been shown to depend on short-term spatial memory to find food on a radial arm maze (RAM), but what locomotor search tactics are involved in using this memory effectively? Four experiments distinguished tactics of distance minimizing, central-place search, trail following, thigmotactic search, and random search by using different configurations of a RAM placed flat on the floor of an arena. These search tactics make similar predictions on an elevated RAM but predict different outcomes on a floor RAM because the rats are free to approach the food from any direction. After initial trials dominated by exploration, rats traveled along arms to food, even when the resultant distance was up to three times the minimum distance. With no food present, rats also traveled along arms; with no arms up to present, they traveled along walls to food. It appears that both maze arms and arena walls engage mechanisms related to trail following in rats.     

Creativity Is About Being Free ...

I began this journey with the notion that creativity is somehow linked to having the freedom to explore and discover and dissemble and reassemble in whatever form we choose. This notion is compared with the ideas of researchers in the field of creativity. As an engineer who believes in a holistic approach, I am most comfortable with the idea of creativity as a multifarious beast, influenced by both personality and the cultural, social and professional environment in which engineers, in this case, find themselves. This being the case, engineering educators therefore have some opportunity to influence these factors, and hence the development of creative thinking in our students. I then examine a case study of a design project in second‐year chemical and environmental engineering in an attempt to ground these ideas about creativity in engineering education practice, and present the lessons learned from this experience.     

Museums and Indigenous People in Australia: A Review of Previous Possessions,New Obligations: Policies for Museums in Australia and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Previous Possessions, New Obligations was launched by Museums Australia Inc. in 1993, the International Year for the World's Indigenous People, as a policy framework to guide the development of relationships between museums in Australia and Indigenous Australians. The policy was based on consultation with Indigenous people to develop protocols, policies and procedures for more sensitive collection management and for including Indigenous people in research and public programs; and to address issues of governance. It expressed the values that would underpin new relationships between museums in Australia and Indigenous Australians. An evaluation of the policy was conducted in 2000 in a collaboration between the Australian Museum Audience Research Centre, Sydney, and Museums Australia Inc., Canberra. The evaluation found that the policy had substantially met its goals, particularly in establishing the primary rights of Indigenous people to control their cultural material in museum collections. However, a range of substantially new issues emerged which require new policy responses and initiatives.     

Multiple perceptions of children's aggression: Differences across neighborhood,age, gender,and perceiver

We investigated how overtly aggressive behavior was differentially perceived by two types of perceivers, teachers and peers, as a function of student neighborhood, gender, and grade level. Participants (N= 765) were predominantly African American students in grades 3‐5 recruited from two urban public schools in southern California. The neighborhoods surrounding the two schools differed in levels of identified violent crime and economic levels. Teachers in the community experiencing more violence perceived student behavior to be relatively less aggressive and more similar across genders than did teachers in the less violent community. Peers in the community experiencing more violent crime perceived both boys and girls to be somewhat aggressive, whereas in the less violent community, boys were perceived as aggressive more so than were girls. In general, agreement between teacher and peer perceptions was stronger for boys than for girls. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Setting theoretical and empirical foundations for assessing scientific inquiry and discovery in educational programs

This study was designed to develop measures of student competence in conducting scientific inquiry. Two assessment techniques were developed. The first measures Scientific Inquiry Capabilities, variables which are indicators of diverse aspects of competence in conducting scientific inquiry. The second measures Scientific Discovery, an indicator of success in attaining scientific concepts as a result of direct investigations into natural phenomena. Thirty‐two high school students were presented with tasks requiring the building and testing of logical–mathematical models of natural phenomena. The relationship between each Scientific Inquiry Capability and success in making discoveries was tested. Several Inquiry Capabilities were identified as strongly correlated with success in Discovery, notably: Proportional Reasoning, the Coordination of Theory with Evidence, and the Disposition to Search for Necessary Underlying Principles. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 938–962, 2000     

The 2006 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science presented to Fernando Nottebohm, Ph.D. for demonstration of Central Neurogenesis in Adult Avians, with Concomitant Implications for the Theory of Memory and for the Future of Neurological Repair in Injury and Disease

Nottebohm is noted for his demonstration of Central Neurogenesis in Adult Avians, with Concomitant Implications for the Theory of Memory and for the Future of Neurological Repair in Injury and Disease.     

Psychological traits and loyalty intentions towards e-Government services

Purpose

Having been rated the world's leader in e-Government Readiness in 2002, 2004, and 2005, Taiwan sought to capitalize on its experience in e-Government implementation by launching, in 2007, a new Government-to-Citizen service entitled “e-Housekeeper”. The success of this service has since then become an important focus for practitioners.

Methodology

The reported research utilizes a psychological approach that is different from the classical models that dominate the existing literature, by examining how citizens’ adaptive–innovative cognitive styles and involvement jointly influence their loyalty intentions towards e-Housekeeper. The style/involvement model is tested by means of information from a sample of 206 Taiwan citizens.

Findings

While innovators initiated e-Housekeeper significantly earlier than others, their usage did not last for long. In contrast, more-involved citizens have shown higher loyalty intentions. More specifically, a combination of decision-making style and involvement significantly influences both when citizens try the service and whether they continue to use it: more-involved adaptors reported the strongest loyalty intentions.

Originality/value

Practical implications of the findings for the style/involvement model are suggested in the context of enhancing the strategic performance of e-Government services. The value of the style/involvement model is enhanced as a social scientific approach to the analysis of consumer innovation.     

Situating Learning of Human Performance Technology

The Organizational Communication, Learning, and Design Department at Ithaca College is experimenting with educational methods that situate learning in authentic contexts, for example, in real cases with actual clients. We hope that these methods will better prepare our students for skilled practice in the complex situations and environments where they will work. One of our efforts has focused on an upper-level undergraduate course titled Performance Technology, for which we have developed a variety of what we believe are innovative strategies and activities. Results have been encouraging and have suggested more direct and powerful links between preparation and practice.