The achievement flow motive as an element of the autotelic personality: predicting educational attainment in three cultures

Human behavior is directed by an implicit and an explicit motivational system. The intrinsic form of the implicit achievement motive has been demonstrated to predict the experience of flow. Thus, this achievement flow motive can be considered an integral component of the autotelic personality, posited in Flow Theory as dispositional difference in the propensity to experience flow. As implicit motivation predicts long-term behavioral trends and flow predicts quality of performance, the achievement flow motive should be predictive of a long-term goal pursuit such as educational attainment. This hypothesis is tested cross-culturally to shed some light on the universality of flow: Participants from Cameroon, Costa Rica, and Germany were asked about the level of education they attained. To assess their achievement flow motive, the Operant Motive Test was employed. After measurement equivalence was established, analyses revealed that, across all three cultures, the achievement flow motive explained variance in educational attainment independent of achievement values as measured by a scale of the Schwartz Value Survey. Consequently, as would be expected of an element of the autotelic personality, the achievement flow motive predicts long-term academic success.     

A study regarding the spontaneous use of geometric shapes in young children’s drawings

The studies regarding how the comprehension of geometric shapes evolves in childhood are largely based on the assessment of children's responses during the course of tasks linked to the recognition, classification or explanation of prototypes and models. Little attention has been granted to the issue as to what extent the geometric shape turns out to be an expressive tool that young children spontaneously use in their pictorial productions and also, whether or not methodological research approaches aimed at the examination of unprompted usage of geometric shapes in childhood may be useful regarding the study of the development of geometric thinking. This evidence provided by this study is coherent with the assumption that before starting primary education, internal representation of closed curves, quadrilaterals and triangles should have been developed by a significant number of children and, more interestingly, that young children’s graphical expressivity appears liaised to their skill to depict two-dimensional geometric shapes.     

International Comparisons in Higher Education Funding

The use of appropriate indicators of public and private expenditures, from which statistically significant differences in funding policies can be identified, constitutes a solid foundation in which the assessment of the role of governments in promoting higher education can be grounded. Based on a carefully selected set of Organization for Economic Co‐operation and Development indicators, this paper explores the effects of education funding policies, along with research and development expenditures and tax levels, on the entry rate to higher education. The results from the statistical analysis of the data confirm the existence of two distinct approaches to higher education funding, the Scandinavian approach and Anglo–American approach, and help to define their characteristics.     

Robust sliding mode control of a DC/DC Boost converter with switching frequency regulation

This paper presents the design of a hysteresis band controller to regulate the switching frequency in a sliding mode controlled nonlinear Boost power converter. The proposed architecture relies on a piecewise linear modeling of the switching function behavior within the hysteresis band, and consists of a continuous-time integral-type controller that modifies the amplitude of the hysteresis band of the comparator in accordance with the error between the desired and the actually measured switching period. The study provides the dynamical models of the converter operating in sliding mode and the switching frequency control loop. Moreover, the design of the parameters of both the sliding mode control and the switching frequency controller guarantee the fulfilment of the desired output voltage regulation of the Boost converter and the steady state setting of the switching frequency with a known, taylored dynamics. A Boost power converter prototype has been built to validate the proposal. Experimental results confirm the predicted good performance of the controllers, as well as the robustness with respect to changes in the switching frequency reference and the system parameters.     

Disseminating scientific research: a double-edged sword?

This study addresses the problem of knowledge dissemination in science–society relation, its connection with the specialization of scientific research fields and the proliferation of academic and practitioner-oriented journals. Specifically, we elaborate on the scientists’ failure to communicate successfully with practitioners and the need for establishing alternative mechanisms that help boost the flow of knowledge between academics and industry. To do so, a thorough literature review is conducted and the author guidelines of the most prominent journals that appeal to both academics and practitioners are reviewed. Based on the analysis, the article offers suggestions on how to narrow the science–industry knowledge gap and how to find a way of not only delivering science to practitioners, but also making science benefit society. Progress is necessary to move towards a better academic–practitioner dialogue and thereby advance both science and practice.     

Educational assessment policy and practice: a matter of ethics

Long-standing concerns within the field of educational assessment consider the impact of assessment policy and practice as matters of equity, inequality and social justice. Yet educational assessment policy and practice continues to have powerful social consequences for key users such as children and young people. This paper re-positions these consequences as a matter of ethics. It uses the work of Messick to frame how ethical matters extend beyond test instruments into the realm of uses and impact. A case study of the 11+ school transfer system in Northern Ireland is presented to illustrate ethical dilemmas emerging as a consequence of actions and decisions of using assessment systems for particular purposes. In looking forward to how we might attend to ethical matters in assessment policy and practice, a consideration of a children’s rights approach is outlined that may provide a moral and legal framework for action.     

Critical Race Theory Meets the NYPD: An Assessment of Anti-Racist Pedagogy for Police in New York City

This research describes and assesses Critical Race Theory (CRT) pedagogy in a higher education ethnic studies course for police officers. CRT pedagogy aims to help students overcome “color-blind” thinking, which minimizes awareness of racism, by raising their critical understanding of racism and framing it as a pervasive and institutionalized reality that everyone has a responsibility to change. Using the Color Blind Racial Awareness (COBRA) Scale, critical awareness in three cluster areas, white privilege, institutional discrimination, and blatant racism, is measured among those completing the ethnic studies course and a comparison group of officers completing a different college course for police. Conclusions reflect on the impact of the course on students’ awareness of racism, the correlation of identity and awareness of racism, the hypothetical impact of such awareness in policing and possibilities for future research.     

Equity Issues in Performance Assessment: The Contribution of Teacher-Assessed Coursework to Gender-Related Differences in Examination Performance

This article discusses the particular consequences for equity issues in testing and evaluation with the inclusion of performance assessment components in public examinations. The article outlines the relative contribution that examination components make, especially teacher-assessed coursework, to gender-related differences in performance. Since the introduction of coursework in 1988 into mainstream examining in the UK, via the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), it has been generally welcomed as an effective motivator of pupils and has enhanced performance. However, since 1994, we have seen a considerable reduction in the amount of coursework available within the GCSE syllabuses. This has had major implications for how this type of assessment is seen within the examination system. There is also a widespread perception that while teacher-assessed coursework generally favours pupils, it actually favours girls more than boys in terms of better (GCSE) performance. The research presented in this article investigates this issue further. Two factors are considered: The extent to which examination components in reality operate as intended and whether coursework does contribute disproportionately to girls’ final grades. Both these factors have implications for the consequential and differential validity of these examinations.     

Laser cleaning of terracotta decorations of the portal of Palos of the Cathedral of Seville

Laser cleaning has been used to restore the soiled terracotta statues and decorations of the tympanum of the portal of Palos of the Cathedral of Seville in Spain. A simultaneous laboratory study performed on a representative sample helped to identify the optimum laser conditions to remove the dark soiling layer produced by air pollution. It was found that irradiation at 1064 nm with a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser was more effective than the harmonic wavelengths of 532 or 266 nm. LIBS and Raman microscopy gave information on the composition of terracotta and identified the presence of a protective layer made of gypsum and calcite. As detected by Raman spectroscopy, laser irradiation caused the elimination of the carbon component of the soiling layer and the appearance of an anhydrite component in the laser irradiated gypsum layer applied over the terracotta substrate for protective purposes. Local heating of the surface caused by laser irradiation at 1064 nm, the laser wavelength used for restoration of the portal, might be responsible for a process of partial dehydration of gypsum into anhydrite.