Human capital heterogeneity, collaborative relationships, and publication patterns in a multidisciplinary scientific alliance: a comparative case study of two scientific teams

In this paper, we compare the publication outcomes of two teams within a multi-university scientific alliance. Scientists in one team share similar scholarly backgrounds and work in a well established paradigm, while scientists in the second team have different backgrounds and work in an emergent discipline. While the alliance has increased the productivity of both teams, this increase was highest for the more heterogeneous team. In addition, while the variety of knowledge concepts employed in their research was initially higher for the heterogeneous team, this gap narrowed over time. We discuss the implications of our research for alliance design.     

The laboratory test utilization management toolbox

Efficiently managing laboratory test utilization requires both ensuring adequate utilization of needed tests in some patients and discouraging superfluous tests in other patients. After the difficult clinical decision is made to define the patients that do and do not need a test, a wealth of interventions are available to the clinician and laboratorian to help guide appropriate utilization. These interventions are collectively referred to here as the utilization management toolbox. Experience has shown that some tools in the toolbox are weak and other are strong, and that tools are most effective when many are used simultaneously. While the outcomes of utilization management studies are not always as concrete as may be desired, what data is available in the literature indicate that strong utilization management interventions are safe and effective measures to improve patient health and reduce waste in an era of increasing financial pressure.     

A psychometric evaluation of the digital logic concept inventory

Concept inventories hold tremendous promise for promoting the rigorous evaluation of teaching methods that might remedy common student misconceptions and promote deep learning. The measurements from concept inventories can be trusted only if the concept inventories are evaluated both by expert feedback and statistical scrutiny (psychometric evaluation). Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory provide two psychometric frameworks for evaluating the quality of assessment tools. We discuss how these theories can be applied to assessment tools generally and then apply them to the Digital Logic Concept Inventory (DLCI). We demonstrate that the DLCI is sufficiently reliable for research purposes when used in its entirety and as a post-course assessment of students’ conceptual understanding of digital logic. The DLCI can also discriminate between students across a wide range of ability levels, providing the most information about weaker students’ ability levels.     

Some of the Reasons Why Preparing for Exams Is So Hard: What Can Be Done to Make It Easier?

Why it is so difficult to prepare for academic exams is reviewed with respect to recent research. Textbooks, teaching, and information processing characteristics of students all contribute to undermining effective learning and review. Recommendations are made about how instructors can make it easier for students to review and appraise their test readiness, as well as about how students can make a difference in the quality of their own preparations for tests.     

The impact of a team's aggressive reputation on the decisions of association football referees

It has been suggested that individuals may use heuristic methods of reasoning and rely on schemata when a quick decision is necessary. Accordingly, it is possible that decisions made by sport officials may be influenced by prior knowledge they have about teams they are officiating. The aim of the present study was to determine whether sport officials are more likely to penalize individuals who participate in a team with an aggressive reputation. In a balanced design, 38 football referees were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group and were presented with the same 50 video clips of incidents from football games, all involving a team in a blue strip ('blue team'). The incidents were categorized before the study by five experienced referees into fouls committed both by, and against, the blue team, where all participants agreed that a foul had been committed (certain incidents), disagreed it was a foul (uncertain incidents) or agreed that there was no foul (innocuous incidents). Both groups received written instructions before the task; in addition, the experimental group was informed that the blue team present in all of the clips had a reputation for foul and aggressive play. For each incident, the participants were required to indicate what action they would engage in if refereeing the game. Although there was no difference in the number of decisions made, the experimental group awarded significantly more red and yellow cards against the blue team both overall and for the 'certain' incidents. It is suggested that prior knowledge may impact referees' behaviour in a laboratory setting, although future research should explore whether a similar effect is observed in the behaviour of referees during football matches.     

Postdiscrimination generalization as a function of interresponse time

Following 20 sessions of variable-interval 20-sec reinforcement in the presence of a single 45-deg line-tilt stimulus, three pigeons were trained to discriminate between line tilts of 45 deg correlated with variable-interval 20-sec reinforcement and line tilts of 15 deg correlated with extinction. A generalization test along the line-tilt dimension was administered following a criterion discrimination performance. Gradients derived in terms of relative frequency of response as a function of line tilt indicated strong external stimulus control and exhibited clear peak shift. From the interresponse time (IRT) distributions generated for responding to each test stimulus, probability of response conditional upon IRT (IRTs/Op) was derived as a joint function of line tilt and IRT. The IRTs/Op functions for responses following IRTs in 0.2-sec-wide classes from 0.2 to 1.0 sec and for responses following IRTs in the interval of 1.0 to 2.0 sec were similar to the relative generalization gradients and also exhibited peak shift. Few IRTs were greater than 2.0 sec. External stimulus control was established over responses terminating IRTs both longer and shorter than 1.0 sec.     

Age 70 retirement for faculty: An institutional approach

Postponed faculty retirements, combined with declining student enrollments and persistent inflation, are causing increasing concern in higher education. The 1978 Amendments to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act establish the mandatory retirement age at 70, but exempt tenured faculty from this provision until 1982. The legislation focuses attention on the retirement aspect of the problem, and researchers are busy analyzing the issue to help the industry plan for the impact of the new law.Most analysts approach the task from the aggregate perspective, and apply industry norms to individual institutions. The variations among institutions undermines the validity of this approach. This article demonstrates the problems of the aggregate analysis, and offers an alternative for individual institutions.     

¿Qué clases y profesores tendremos para la enseñanza de las matemáticas? Posibilidades y alternativas

La pregunta que se plantea el titular de este artículo no es sino una de entre las muchas que se plantean a lo largo del texto acerca de los protagonistas, los contextos y los recursos que pueden ponerse en marcha en un futuro ya presente, al menos en las sociedades avanzadas. Se pasa revista desde el modelo de aula que se avecina, a las nuevas tecnologías—el ordenador y su software, pero también los audiovisuales o el propio texto escrito—, hasta el modelo de profesor y de relación educativa que implican esos nuevos contextos.     

Development,Evaluation and Use of a Student Experience Survey in Undergraduate Science Laboratories: The Advancing Science by Enhancing Learning in the Laboratory Student Laboratory Learning Experience Survey

Student experience surveys have become increasingly popular to probe various aspects of processes and outcomes in higher education, such as measuring student perceptions of the learning environment and identifying aspects that could be improved. This paper reports on a particular survey for evaluating individual experiments that has been developed over some 15 years as part of a large national Australian study pertaining to the area of undergraduate laboratories—Advancing Science by Enhancing Learning in the Laboratory. This paper reports on the development of the survey instrument and the evaluation of the survey using student responses to experiments from different institutions in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. A total of 3153 student responses have been analysed using factor analysis. Three factors, motivation, assessment and resources, have been identified as contributing to improved student attitudes to laboratory activities. A central focus of the survey is to provide feedback to practitioners to iteratively improve experiments. Implications for practitioners and researchers are also discussed.