Opening classroom interaction: the importance of feedback

Efforts to encourage ‘interactive practice’ in the National Literacy (NLS) and Numeracy (NNS) Strategies in the UK, have led to an emphasis on teacher questions. Recent research into classroom interactions, however, indicate that the pattern of interaction remains largely unchanged since the introduction of these strategies in terms of the type and amount of questions teachers are asking, and the opportunities for extended pupil participation. This article uses evidence gathered from a large‐scale research project examining classroom interactions during literacy and numeracy lessons, and the researchers' critical reflections upon this process, to examine conceptions of interactive pedagogy. It is argued that in order to ‘open’ classroom interaction, emphasis should be less on the questions teachers ask, and more on the manner with which teachers react to pupils' responses to questions. Episodes of classroom interaction from video recorded literacy and numeracy lessons taken as part of the study are used to support this argument. They present evidence of teacher behaviours in reaction to pupils' responses which succeed in facilitating a more interactive learning environment. The implication that such behaviour will contribute towards a model of effective interactive practice is also discussed.     

Anti-bullying procedures for schools in Ireland: principals’ responses and perceptions

The role of the principal is imperative in creating a school climate that nurtures differences and equality at the same time. Policy and legislation in Ireland dictates the responsibility of school principals in preventing and intervening in issues relating to bullying. The current research investigates the extent to which principals consider the impact of bullying on their students and the strategies they take to combat it in their schools. We consider how principals respond to bullying and what supports they feel are missing for them to adhere to relevant policy. A sample of 918 principals from a range of schools across Ireland completed an online survey. The results demonstrated some positive actions by principals such as the provision of anti-bullying policies. However, they also document areas that need more action such as increased access to counsellors and appointing a specific staff member to deal with and tackle bullying in each school. Guidance from the Department of Education and Skills in Ireland on the development and provision of an anti-bullying programme is called for. Results are discussed in light of the current Anti-Bullying Procedures established by the Department of Education and Skills and the Action Plan for Bullying 2013.     

Post‐school horizons: New Zealand’s neo‐liberal generation in transition

Dominant conceptions of the world infuse educational experiences for young people in implicit rather than explicit ways—through becoming, as Stuart Hall argues, ‘the horizon of the taken‐for‐granted’. In this article we explore these horizons as experienced by New Zealand’s neo‐liberal generation, currently ‘in transition’ from high school to further education, training and/or employment. As in Britain, further education has become a taken‐for‐granted feature of post‐school horizons for young New Zealanders but it is not a meaningful destination for all of them. The 93 young New Zealanders in our study have grown up during a period of intensive neo‐liberal reform, the speed and scope of which were unprecedented in Western economies. We interviewed these young people in their last year of high school and again once they were well embarked on their post‐school lives. We explore how the landscapes of choice of these young people have been restructured in neo‐liberal times: for some, the influences of parents, teachers, schools, universities and educational policy have come together to construct apparently wide‐open horizons in which university is a taken‐for‐granted destination. For others, however, these influences have remained subject to assumptions about ‘race’ and class that have a long history in New Zealand and the result has been a narrowing of future possibilities for participants. In all cases, we are concerned to explore the costs that are borne by these young people in this new environment.     

Extinction and retraining of simultaneous and successive flavor conditioning

In three experiments, rats received pairings of flavor conditioned stimuli with polycose unconditioned stimuli, in either a simultaneous or a sequential relation. Both temporal relations produced excellent conditioned increases in consumption of the flavors. Separate presentation of the flavors resulted in extinction in both cases. However, restoring the pairing of the flavor with polycose resulted in reconditioning only with the sequential, not with the simultaneous, relation.     

Unpacking the effects of adverse regulatory events: Evidence from pharmaceutical relabeling

We provide causal evidence that regulation induced product shocks significantly impact aggregate demand and firm performance in pharmaceutical markets. Event study results suggest an average loss between $569 million and $882 million. Affected products lose, on average, $186 million over their remaining effective patent life. This leaves a loss of between $383 million and $696 million attributable to declines in future innovation. Our findings complement research that shows drugs receiving expedited review are more likely to suffer from regulation induced product shocks. Thus, it appears we may be trading off quicker access to drugs today for less innovation tomorrow. Results remain robust to variation across types of relabeling, market sizes, and levels of competition.     

Conveying quality and value in emerging industries: Star scientists and the role of signals in biotechnology

This paper addresses the role that scientific status plays in initial public offerings of technology focused firms. The paper builds on the literature of the sociology of science as well as the work of Spence (1974) and Podolny (1993) and argues that the presence of a Nobel laureate affiliated with a firm making an IPO provides a signal of firm quality to potential investors. Moreover, and building on the work of Podolny and Scott Morton (1999) and Stuart et al. (1999) we hypothesize that the importance of status diminishes as other measures of firm quality become available. We test our hypothesis for two periods of initial public offerings in biotechnology. We document that there is a clear difference in “maturity” of the firms across the two windows on a number of metrics. Consistent with our hypothesis that Nobel laureates play an important role as a non-financial signal of firm quality, we find that first-window firms with a Nobel laureate affiliate realize greater IPO proceeds in the amount of $24 million. In the second window the amount of money raised is not significantly different between Nobel and non-Nobel firms. This finding is consistent with the signaling literature that argues that the importance of a signal is inversely related to the availability of cogent information on firm quality. Consistent with this view, we also find a change between the two windows in the importance of other non-financial metrics used to convey value. Our research is one of the first to examine the dynamic nature of signals. Because we are unable to distinguish the extent to which the reduction in uncertainty at the firm level is correlated with the reduction of uncertainty at the industry level, the question remains as to the extent to which the diminished importance of signals in our second period is due to a change in market uncertainty versus a change in firm uncertainty.     

A factor analytic study of children’s picture interpretation behavior

Many questions about picture interpretation behavior remain to be answered One question relates to the psychological nature of such behavior and may be stated; What psychological processes are involved in drawing inferences from pictures? This study attempts to answer the question using a model of picture interpretation that consists of two interdependent forms of behavior: observation and inference drawing. The study focuses on the latter, which is further divided into productive and evaluative processes. These are accounted for by three constructs: operational facility, the ability to generalize concepts, and conceptual fluency. To test the model and related hypotheses, two pictorial tests of inference drawing and 19 reference tests were administered to 95 children aged 10 to 12 years, A factor analytic methodology was employed.