Globalization or Glocalization? Higher Education Reforms in Singapore

Globalization and the evolution of the knowledge‐based economy have caused dramatic changes to the character and functions of higher education in most countries around the world. However, the impacts of globalization on universities are not uniform though business‐like practices have been adopted to cope with competition in the global marketplace. The pressure for restructuring and reforming higher education is mainly derived from growing expectations and demands of different stakeholders in society. In recent years, widespread concerns over widened access, funding, accountability, quality, and managerial efficiency are perceived as the prominent global trends related to university education. Because of the divergent political, social, economic, cultural and historical backgrounds, national/local governments may adopt similar strategies in response to pressures generated from globalization. Nonetheless, through a close scrutiny of the ways that national policies are made, we may find that governments around the globe, particularly in East Asia, have tried to make use of the globalization discourse to address/justify the local policy/political agendas. This paper aims to examine the latest higher education reform initiatives proposed by the Singapore Government, with particular reference to reflect upon how the Singapore Government reforms its university systems in the context of globalization. It is argued that the latest comprehensive review of public university governance and funding brings about a changing role of the government in the regulation, finance and provision of higher education in Singapore and eventually alters the state‐university relationship.     

Caregiver-child interactions and the type A coronary-prone behavior pattern

Type A behavior, 1 of the risk factors for heart disease, is characterized by impatience and competitive achievement striving. An opposing type B pattern is characterized by patience and a lack of competitive achievement striving. Previous observations of mother-child interactions revealed that mothers gave type A and type B children different frequencies of pushing and positive task evaluation. To isolate the effects of type A and B children on caregivers, the present study examined the caregiver behavior of female strangers elicited by boys' type A and B behavior. In addition, it examined whether the child effects differed according to the caregivers' behavior pattern. Results indicated that, relative to type B children, type A children elicited more pushing and positive task evaluation from type B caregivers. However, type A caregivers did not respond to the differences in the children's behavior pattern. The caregiver behavior of type A's and type B's is discussed in light of previous experimental findings of their general responsiveness to variations in their environment.     

Sisters, brothers, and delinquency: evaluating social influence during early and middle adolescence

Although a number of studies have shown that brothers are highly correlated for delinquent behavior, much less research has been conducted on sisters. We propose that sisters, like brothers, show notable similarity for delinquent behavior, and also promote each other's delinquency through direct interaction. We examined these issues in 164 brother and sister pairs studied over a 4-year period (from early to middle adolescence) in a study of intact families in the rural Midwest. Sibling similarity for self-reports of delinquent behavior were highly correlated for both brothers and sisters. Conditional effects of high levels of hostile-coercive sibling relationships and older sibling delinquency predicted younger sibling delinquency in both brother and sister pairs. For brothers, conditional effects were also detected for high levels of warmth-support, in contrast to sisters. The conditional effects of older sibling delinquency and relationship quality were shown to predict change in younger sibling delinquency through adolescence. The results add to a growing literature on sibling effects as well as theoretical models that emphasize the role of social interaction between siblings as a risk factor for the development of delinquent activity in adolescence.     

Satisfied conclusion validity of early intervention research with handicapped children

The statistical conclusion validity of early intervention research studies was examined by conducting a post hoc power analysis of 484 statistical tests from 49 early intervention articles. Statistical power determinations were made based on Cohen's (1977) criteria for small, medium, and large effect sizes. The analysis revealed that the median power to detect small, medium, and large effect sizes ranged from .08 to .46. Four percent of early intervention studies had adequate power (.80 or greater) to detect medium intervention effects and 18% to detect large intervention effects. The power values suggest poor statistical conclusion validity in the analyzed research and should alert investigators to the possibility of Type II experimental errors in the early intervention research literature. The argument is made that low statistical conclusion validity has practical consequences in relation to program evaluation and cost-effectiveness determinations.     

The impact of a systematic and explicit vocabulary intervention in Spanish with Spanish-speaking English learners in first grade

This study examined the impact of a 15-min daily explicit vocabulary intervention in Spanish on expressive and receptive vocabulary knowledge and oral reading fluency in Spanish, and on language proficiency in English. Fifty Spanish-speaking English learners who received 90 min of Spanish reading instruction in an early transition model were randomly assigned to a treatment group (Vocabulary Enhanced Systematic and Explicit Teaching Routines [VE-SETR]) or a comparison group that received general vocabulary instruction using the standard reading curriculum with general strategies designed to increase the explicitness of instruction (General Systematic and Explicit Teaching Routines). Results indicated a statistically significant difference in depth of student Spanish vocabulary knowledge favoring the VE-SETR group. Differences on language proficiency in English, general vocabulary knowledge in Spanish, and oral reading fluency in Spanish were not statistically significant. Implications for future research are discussed.