A causality analysis of the link between higher education and economic development

The aim of this article is to shed light on the relationship between higher education and economic development by means of econometric tools designed to evaluate the existence and direction of causality: cointegration and Granger-causality tests. The results show a significant causality from national higher educational effort (proxied by the number of students per capita, i.e. not engaged in productive activities) to economic development for four countries: Sweden (1910–1986), United Kingdom (1919–1987), Japan (1885–1975) and France (1899–1986). However, such a causality link has not been found for Italy (1885–1986) or Australia (1906–1986). This suggests that this relationship is indeed not mechanistic as already pointed out by some social scientists.     

Local Redundancy Governs Infants' Spontaneous Orienting to Visual‐Temporal Sequences

Two experiments demonstrate that 5‐month‐olds are sensitive to local redundancy in visual‐temporal sequences. In Experiment 1, 20 infants saw 2 separate sequences of looming colored shapes that possessed the same elements but contrasting transitional probabilities. One sequence was random whereas the other was based on bigrams. Without any prior exposure, infants looked longer at the random sequence. In Experiment 2, 17 infants looked equally long at bigram‐ and trigram‐based sequences. However, an analysis of local redundancy revealed that in both experiments disengagement from the sequences was governed by local repetitions rather than by global sequence statistics. This finding suggests that a spontaneous sensitivity to stimulus complexity helps orient infants to sequences they can learn from.     

Books on Research Methods and Bibliography

Dennis P. Forece and Stephen Richer's Stages of Social Research: Contemporary Perspectives (Prentice-Hall, $8.95)

Denis Grogan's Science and Technology: An Introduction to the Literature (Archen Books/Shoestring Press, $17.00)

John Brown Mason, Research Resources: Annotated Guide to the Social Sciences (American Bibliographical Center/Clio Press, Riviera Campus, 2010 Alameda Padre Sierra, Santa Barbara, California 93103, $3.00 each for two volumes)     

High school laboratory work in Western Australia: Openness to inquiry

Laboratory work has always been the most distinctive feature of secondary science teaching and learning. With the increasing emphasis on student centred learning and the importance of developing investigation and problem-solving skills there is value in reflecting on the type of laboratory work that is carried out in the science curriculum. The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of the laboratory work undertaken by lower secondary science students, and in particular, to determine the openness to inquiry of these activities. The study also examined the factors that influence teachers in determining the type of student investigations that occur in the science laboratory. Data from a survey of Perth lower secondary science teachers reveal low levels of inquiry and interesting insights into teacher's perceptions about the benefits of open inquiry for students and the difficulities for teachers. The difficulties identified by teachers represent barriers to change that must be addressed if more open inquiry laboratory work is to be implemented in schools.     

Has Cinderella Become so Fragmented That She Can No Longer Identify her Area of Expertise

The question addressed by this article is whether lecturers delivering HEBCs in FECs in England perceive their institutions to be fragmented, i.e. has Cinderella lost her identity via the demands and pressures placed upon her by the UK government and other stakeholders? The research adopts a qualitative approach, where 26 interviews were conducted in FECs in the Yorkshire and Humber regions. The findings, although not surprising, were quite candid and indicated that there may be some role conflict, as management seemed to prioritise funding over everything else, including the well-being of their employees.