Where is my attention? Children’s metaknowledge expressed through drawings

The aim of the present research is to assess the developmental pattern of the metacognitive knowledge of attention in Italian primary school students. Data were collected from 95 pupils divided into two age groups: the first (6–8 years) and second primary school cycles (8–10 years). The children were asked to perform two specific thematic drawings on attention vs inattention in the school context. The drawings were coded on the basis of the Children’s Awareness of Attention through Drawing, consisting of five scales which explore the behavioural, pragmatic, cognitive, emotional and social awareness of attention. The analysis of the thematic drawings reveals that from the early years of primary school, children are aware of some components of attention: behavioural awareness, pragmatic awareness and social awareness. Other components are instead acquired as of the age of eight.     

Millis,Barbara J ed (2010) Cooperative learning in higher education Stylus (Sterling VA, & Eurospan,London) isbn 978‐1‐57922‐329‐8 233 pp £20.50http://stylus.styluspub.com/books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=187885

This interesting book aims to provide tools, pedagogical support, and inspiration to enable higher education teachers to implement cooperative teaching and learning approaches effectively, so as to lead their students to engage in stimulating problem solving activities and by this means develop critical thinking and deep learning. If this book's content is likely to be relevant to what you do, I strongly suggest you borrow a copy. Giuliana Dettori     

From high school to university: Impact of social networking sites on social capital in the transitions of emerging adults

In recent years, the huge success of social network sites (SNSs) has principally been determined by their ability to link people and their respective relationships. These relationships allow people to access different resources, information, emotional and social support, entertainment, as well as providing them with the opportunity to extend personal social ties. This paper investigates the way in which SNSs are used by emerging adults, defined as young people in the transition from adolescence to adulthood, and particularly those in their last year of high school or at university. The study focuses on different types of social capital and on the use of SNSs by emerging adults during this transitional phase in maintaining and developing relationships. Data collected from a questionnaire administered to 927 emerging adults show, first of all, the relevance of different types of social capital (bridging, bonding and maintaining) based on the student's position (high school, university first‐year student or university student). Second, the data analysis indicates that SNSs can be conceived as part of functional organs that support emerging adults in their ability to connect and to be connected to a social network and to develop and maintain it over time.     

The intra-firm diffusion of complementary innovations: Evidence from the adoption of management practices by British establishments

This paper presents a simple profitability-based decision model to show how synergistic gains generated by the joint adoption of complementary innovations may influence the firm's adoption decision. For this purpose a weighted index of intra-firm diffusion is built to investigate empirically the drivers of the intensity of joint use of a set of complementary innovations. The findings indicate that establishment size, ownership structure and product market concentration are important determinants of the intensity of use. Interestingly, the factors that affect the extent of use of technological innovations do also affect that of clusters of management practices. However, they can explain only part of the heterogeneity of the benefits from joint use.