Career-first: an approach to sustainable labour market integration

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - Active labour market policies aim at supporting people entering and, importantly, remaining in the labour market. Initiatives to this...     

The transfer of U.S. technology abroad

The causes of the transfer of technology between countries is now seen as an important dimension of the diffusion of new products and processes. Despite its obvious importance, there has been little empirical research investigating the international transfer of technology, although the work of Schiffel and Kitti (Research Policy 7 (1978)) provides a useful foundation on which to build. The research reported below tests the hypothesis that the transfer of technology between countries, as measured by the movement of patented invention, is influenced by both supply side and demand side factors. The principal variables are: patenting activity in the country of origin; the size of the recepient economy; international trade in goods and services; and the operations of multinational producing enterprises. These vaiables explain most of the variation across countries in the transfer of U.S. technology abroad. The worldwide distribution of U.S. based multinational enterprises appear to play an important part in explaining U.S. technology tranfer. On the other hand, the remaining international differences in patent law do not seem to significantly affect patent flows between countries.     

The probabilistic character of relevance

Gebhardt's[1] probabilistic model of relevance is examined and found not to represent adequately some characteristics of the relevance judgement process. An alternative model is proposed, which identifies two different types of “error” or probabilistic variation between relevance judgements. The two types arise from, first, the definition of the boundaries of the relevance classes, and secondly the actual assessment of an individual document on the underlying scale (which is assumed to be a continuum). The problems of quantifying the model, and of assessing its implications for retrieval testing, are discussed.     

The evolution of an effective pedagogy for teachers using the interactive whiteboard in mathematics and modern languages: an empirical analysis from the secondary sector

There has been considerable investment in the use of interactive whiteboard technology in schools in the UK. There is evidence that whilst teachers understand such technology, many do not understand the nature and implications of interactive learning. Observation and analysis of 50 video‐recorded lessons taught by ‘successful’ teachers drawn from mathematics and modern foreign language departments in secondary schools led to the classification of three types of practice representing a spectrum of increasing interactivity. The nature of this good practice was analysed together with criteria for assessing the changes being wrought by technology in approaches to learning and teaching. The investigation concluded that the use of new technology alone cannot lead to enhanced learning. Teachers also need training to develop awareness of the relationship between approaches to interactive learning and conceptual and cognitive development in subject areas.     

Neuropsychological intervention in dyslexia: two studies on British pupils

The theoretical context of this research is developmental neuropsychology--in particular, the educational implications for the classification of and intervention in specific developmental dyslexia (SDD). Controlled and validated research can help identify optimal teaching methods for groups and individuals. Within this framework, neuropsychological theory can be explored as a medium for improving intervention for pupils with SDD. Neuropsychological stimulation cannot change the macro aspects of the brain but can change its "finetuning" and its response to written text. Within the psycho-neurological approaches, Bakker (1979, 1990, 1998) developed both a diagnostic procedure and empirically investigated intervention procedures. The theory rests on the Balance Model of learning to read, in which differential hemisphere involvement is implicated in beginning and advanced reading. Intervention can take place via hemisphere-specific stimulation using visual or tactile stimulation or hemisphere-alluding stimulation using modified text. Two investigations are presented, one experimental and another clinical. The results support the validity of dyslexia subtyping and the effectiveness of the treatment methods.     

Mental Calculation Methods Used By 11-Year-Olds in Different Attainment Bands: a reanalysis of data from the 1987 APU survey in the UK

This paper describes thereanalysis of data obtained in 1987 on themental calculation strategies used by asample of 11-year-olds in the course of anational survey of schools in England,Wales and Northern Ireland. The mentalskills test was administered to pupils in aone-to-one situation and the reanalysismade use of classifications of mentalstrategies developed in the past decade ininternational research. These pupils werea subsample of the main sample of about 10000 who took a written test of mathematicsin the survey, 247 taking both tests. Thescores on the written test were used todistribute these pupils into three bands ofattainment in order to compare thefrequency and effectiveness of thestrategies used by pupils of differentlevels of attainment. Eight of thereanalysed questions are discussed, each ofthem involving one of the four basicarithmetic operations. Some are purelynumerical and in others the numbers are ina context. Top band pupils mostly preferredsequential strategies which leave one ofthe numbers in the calculation complete,while the Bottom band generally preferredto split complete numbers and operateseparately on the components of the numbersthus partitioned. The most popularstrategy for Middle band pupils in severalquestions was the standard algorithm usedmentally. Complete number strategies werethe most successful for pupils in all threebands. Possible implications for theNational Numeracy Strategy in Britain arediscussed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The effect of changes in item sequence on student performance in a multiple-choice chemistry test

It is standard practice to arrange items in objective tests in order of increasing difficulty, on the assumption that such an arrangement increases student motivation and produces more reliable tests. The validity of this assumption was investigated in the context of a multiplechoice chemistry test. Fifty items were arranged in three sequences of difficulty: random (R), easy-to-hard (E-H) and hard-to-easy (H-E). The mean test score was significantly higher for the test sequenced E-H than for the test sequenced H-E. Item difficulty index was raised by placement of the easier items toward the beginning of the test and lowered by placement of these items toward the end of the test. Test reliability was largely independent of item sequence.