Confirmatory factor analyses of Chinese students' evaluations of university teaching

Chinese University of Hong Kong students (N = 844) selected a “good” and a “poor” teacher, and rated each using a Chinese translation of the Students' Evaluations of Educational Quality (SEEQ) instrument. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) models, based on a 3 × 2 design, were constructed to test the invariance of the SEEQ factor structure across 3 discipline groups (a between‐group comparison of ratings by students in arts, social sciences, and education; in business administration; and in engineering, medicine, and science) and across ratings of good and poor teachers (via within‐subjects comparison). The selected model imposed between‐group invariance constraints on factor loadings, factor correlations, and factor variances across the 3 discipline groups and within‐subjects invariance constraints on factor loadings across ratings of good and poor teachers. The results support the use of SEEQ in this Chinese setting, demonstrating the generality of North American research findings and the usefulness of CFA in this research area.     

Moderation of the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect: Juxtaposition of Evolutionary (Darwinian-Economic) and Achievement Motivation Theory Predictions Based on a Delphi Approach

Educational Psychology Review - The big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE), the negative effect of school-/class-average achievement on academic self-concept, is one of educational psychology’s...     

Consequences of the Confucian culture: High achievement but negative psychological attributes?

In “Unforgiving Confucian culture: A breeding ground for high academic achievement, test anxiety and self-doubt?” Stankov (in press) provides three reasons for caution against over-glorifying the academic excellence of Confucian Asian learners, namely that it may lead to a reluctance to change their rote learning approach which is not conducive to the development of 21st Century skills, that it is achieved at the cost of students' psychological well-being, and that such achievements and the associated poor psychological well-being are spurred by an unforgiving mindset. The present commentary addresses these concerns, highlighting the need to be cautious about comparing and interpreting findings from cross-cultural studies.     

A Comparison of CFA,ESEM, and BSEM in Test Structure Analysis

Minor cross-loadings on non-targeted factors are often found in psychological or other instruments. Forcing them to zero in confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) leads to biased estimates and distorted structures. Alternatively, exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and Bayesian structural equation modeling (BSEM) have been proposed. In this research, we compared the performance of the traditional independent-clusters-confirmatory-factor-analysis (ICM-CFA), the nonstandard CFA, ESEM with the Geomin- or Target-rotations, and BSEMs with different cross-loading priors (correct; small- or large-variance priors with zero mean) using simulated data with cross-loadings. Four factors were considered: the number of factors, the size of factor correlations, the cross-loading mean, and the loading variance. Results indicated that ICM-CFA performed the worst. ESEMs were generally superior to CFAs but inferior to BSEM with correct priors that provided the precise estimation. BSEM with large- or small-variance priors performed similarly while the prior mean for cross-loadings was more important than the prior variance.     

A Comparison of Strategies for Forming Product Indicators for Unequal Numbers of Items in Structural Equation Models of Latent Interactions

This Monte Carlo simulation study investigated different strategies for forming product indicators for the unconstrained approach in analyzing latent interaction models when the exogenous factors are measured by unequal numbers of indicators under both normal and nonnormal conditions. Product indicators were created by (a) multiplying parcels of the larger scale by items of the smaller scale, and (b) matching items according to reliability to create several product indicators, ignoring those items with lower reliability. Two scaling approaches were compared where parceling was not involved: (a) fixing the factor variances, and (b) fixing 1 loading to 1 for each factor. The unconstrained approach was compared with the latent moderated structural equations (LMS) approach. Results showed that under normal conditions, the LMS approach was preferred because the biases of its interaction estimates and associated standard errors were generally smaller, and its power was higher than that of the unconstrained approach. Under nonnormal conditions, however, the unconstrained approach was generally more robust than the LMS approach. It is recommended to form product indicators by using items with higher reliability (rather than parceling) in the matching and then to specify the model by fixing 1 loading of each factor to unity when adopting the unconstrained approach.     

What drives employees to share their tacit knowledge in practice?

Tacit knowledge is internal to an individual in the form of know-how, experience or expertise. To create and maintain a sustainable competitive advantage, many companies have made substantial efforts to promote employees’ sharing of their tacit knowledge. In practice, however, tacit knowledge sharing (TKS) between employees is rare. This study empirically analyses the impacts of individual motivations and social capital on employees’ TKS in order to deepen and widen the understanding about the antecedents to employees’ TKS. Data collected from 713 employees in multiple industries were empirically tested by using structural equation modelling analysis through partial least squares. The analysis results show that anticipated intrinsic rewards and social capital positively influence employees’ TKS whereas anticipated extrinsic rewards have a negative effect on it. Furthermore, they show that employees’ attitudes, intentions and subjective norms of TKS play significant roles in linking the effects of individual motivations and social capital to employees’ TKS through a combination of expectancy theory and social capital theory based on the theory of planned behaviour. Theoretical and practical implications are presented on the basis of the major findings from this study.     

The effect of ball impact location on racket and forearm joint angle changes for one-handed tennis backhand groundstrokes

Recreational tennis players tend to have higher incidence of tennis elbow, and this has been hypothesised to be related to one-handed backhand technique and off-centre ball impacts on the racket face. This study aimed to investigate for a range of participants the effect of off-longitudinal axis and off-lateral axis ball–racket impact locations on racket and forearm joint angle changes immediately following impact in one-handed tennis backhand groundstrokes. Three-dimensional racket and wrist angular kinematic data were recorded for 14 university tennis players each performing 30 “flat” one-handed backhand groundstrokes. Off-longitudinal axis ball–racket impact locations explained over 70% of the variation in racket rotation about the longitudinal axis and wrist flexion/extension angles during the 30 ms immediately following impact. Off-lateral axis ball–racket impact locations had a less clear cut influence on racket and forearm rotations. Specifically off-longitudinal impacts below the longitudinal axis forced the wrist into flexion for all participants with there being between 11° and 32° of forced wrist flexion for an off-longitudinal axis impact that was 1 ball diameter away from the midline. This study has confirmed that off-longitudinal impacts below the longitudinal axis contribute to forced wrist flexion and eccentric stretch of the wrist extensors and there can be large differences in the amount of forced wrist flexion from individual to individual and between strokes with different impact locations.     

The effects of individual motivations and social capital on employees’ tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions

Due to the importance of knowledge in today's competitive world, an understanding of how to enhance employee knowledge sharing has become critical. This study develops an integrated model to understand key factors of employee knowledge sharing intentions through constructs prescribed by two established knowledge management research streams, namely, those concerning individual motivations and social capital. This study classifies employee knowledge sharing intentions as either tacit or explicit and investigates whether the level of the determinants and their influences differ between the two. The research model is tested with survey data collected from 2010 employees in multiple industries. Analysis results show that the proposed model significantly explains the variance of employees’ tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions. This finding indicates that the model's unified perspective enhances our knowledge of how to improve employee knowledge sharing. The new findings reveal that organizational rewards have a negative effect on employees’ tacit knowledge sharing intentions but a positive influence on their explicit knowledge sharing intentions. The analysis results confirm that reciprocity, enjoyment, and social capital contribute significantly to enhancing employees’ tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions. Additionally, these factors have more positive effects on tacit than on explicit knowledge intentions. The implications of the new findings are discussed.     

Design as a social practice: the design of new build schools

In this paper we present the findings of an investigation into the ways in which the discourses and practices of school design produce educational spaces which influence the discourses and practices of teaching and learning when the building is occupied. It expands notions of post occupancy evaluation (POE) research by exploring how the objects/motives of an educational vision which informed an initial school design, those of the final build, and those of the people who occupy that building interact in a way which influences experiences of the end users. Crucially we looked at the social interactions that arose within a building as it was used over time. The focus is on the changing relationships between design and practice through time.