How much is transferred from training to the job? The 10% delusion as a catalyst for thinking about transfer

This article explores the common belief that only a small amount of what is taught in a training program is actually transferred to the job. After providing evidence of the source of the generalization and the acceptance of the notion despite the lack of empirical, behavioral evidence, we take the opportunity to examine the likely reasons for that acceptance. We present five questionable assumptions behind the generalization about minimal transfer. Based on this analysis, we offer four practical strategies for planning, assessing, and reporting training transfer. These strategies include investigating and accounting for variables influencing transfer, expanding the definition of use, stating realistic transfer goals, creating specific transfer objectives, describing observable indicators of use, setting quantitative standards of successful transfer, and reporting the complete transfer story. These strategies provide avenues for producing a more accurate picture of the training transfer experience.     

Assessing Research Performance of University Academic Staff: Measures and Problems

Under the federal government's current policy on funding university research, institutions which can best identify and encourage the higher performers amongst their academic staff will fare better than others. However, in order to secure a strong position in competing for these government funds universities will need to know more about the research activity of their academic staff and how staff in different disciplines are likely to respond to the increased use of performance indicators. This paper reports the views of staff from one Australian university on such issues. One of the main findings is that potential research output is influenced by a range of factors including the differences in research styles, methods and strategies and the degree of dependence on funds. Such findings favour the differential use of performance measures depending on the nature of the research undertaken rather than the use of measures which are intended to standardise research output within or across disciplines.     

The realities and imperatives of career counselling for a developing South Africa

Conclusion The modem cash economy has transformed the Africans' traditional meaning structures and work has become a means for the satisfaction of major life tasks—survival, identity, community and meaning (Dovey & Mathabe, 1987) thus creating an urgent need for education for work in schools. School guidance programmes should adopt holistic developmental approach to address career counselling needs adequately.We recommended that a model which can be used in South Africa must address the person-prospective employer fit. It must essentially capture the career needs of individuals and different employers. Such a model must be sensitive to cultural variations across different prospective employees, i.e., it should allow a wide enough definition of careers such that a broad spectrum of experience and interests can be acknowledged.Finally, we recommended that career counselling programmes include a component to facilitate self-liberation and survival of apartheid. Such a self-liberation must include the individual's personal strategies to create meaning in their life.     

Diversity among Spanish-speaking English language learners: profiles of early literacy skills in kindergarten

This study explored heterogeneity in literacy development among 2,300 Hispanic children receiving English as a Second Language (ESL) services at the start of kindergarten. Two research questions guided this work: (1) Do Spanish-speaking English language learners receiving ESL services in the fall of kindergarten demonstrate homogeneous early literacy skills, or are there distinct patterns of achievement across measures of phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, and orthography? and (2) if there are distinct profiles, to what extent do they predict literacy achievement at the end of kindergarten and the beginning of first grade? Using cluster analysis, the authors identified four distinct literacy profiles derived from fall kindergarten measures of phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, and phonetic spelling. These profiles were found to be associated with literacy outcomes in spring of kindergarten and fall of first grade. The two profiles that were associated with greater success on later measures of concept of word in text, letter sound knowledge, word reading, and spelling were the two that included stronger performance on orthographic skills (i.e., alphabet knowledge and phonetic spelling). These findings demonstrated that there is heterogeneity among Hispanic ESL students at kindergarten entry and suggested that literacy instruction must be differentiated from the very beginning in order to meet students’ individual needs. The findings also suggested that orthographic skills should be assessed and taught early on. While phonological awareness may be a necessary precursor to reading, phonological awareness in the absence of orthographic skills may not be sufficient.     

Safe-circumnavigation of one single agent around a group of targets with only bearing information

This paper investigates the safe-circumnavigation problem of a single agent along a group of static targets. We assume in this paper that the distance information cannot be measured directly and only bearing measurements are available. In order to localize the targets, we design the positional estimator where the bearing measurements of the targets are used to construct the system matrix of the state equation of the estimator. To guarantee that the bearing angles are meaningful and with enough precision, we build the condition keeping safe distance between the agent and the targets. Furthermore, a gradual relaxed method is provided to reduce the limitations brought by the mutual restraint between the accuracy of the initial estimation and the desired encircling radius, so as to make the proposed method easy to apply. The performance of the proposed algorithms is verified through an experiment based on a wheeled robot platform.     

Tunable visual color filter using microfluidic grating

This paper reports a tunable visual color filter based on a microfluidic transmission grating. The grating lines are formed by the microflows in an array of evenly spaced straight microchannels. In experimental study, the transmission of white light measures a shift of visual color from red to blue in the zeroth order diffraction in response to a change of the refractive index from 1.3290 to 1.3782 in the microflows. The merit of large tunability of transmission peak (Δλ=408 nm) makes this grating potential for various applications in biological and chemical measurements, such as space- and time-resolving micropattern spectrophotometers and separation of the fluorescence from the excitation.     

Construction of hollow mesoporous silica nanoreactors for enhanced photo-oxidations over Au-Pt catalysts

It is highly desirable to design hollow structures with multi-scale functions by mimicking cells for the construction of micro/nanoreactors. Herein, we report the construction of hollow-structured submicrometer-photoreactors with bimetallic catalysts loaded within mesoporous silicas. The synthesis parameters are optimized to study the evolution of hollow structure through hydrothermal treatment and an ‘adhesive-contraction’ formation mechanism is proposed. AuPt@HMZS catalysts exhibited a broader absorbance region under visible light and the adsorption edge displayed a red-shift, indicating the strong metal–metal interactions at the alloy interface. The reaction performance of the coupled Au-Pt catalysts can be tuned to achieve excellent catalytic activity in cinnamyl alcohol oxidation to cinnamic acid for 3.1 mmol g⁻¹ with 99% selectivity. The proposed strategy to build hollow structures as multifunctional micro/nanoreactors is promising for the design of high-performance and sustainable catalysts for chemical synthesis.     

STEM Motivation Interventions for Adolescents: A Promising Start,but Further to Go

One way to increase students’ participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is to target their motivation. Researchers have conducted a growing number of interventions addressing students’ motivation in STEM; however, this body of work has not been adequately reviewed. We systematically reviewed experimental and quasi-experimental studies (n = 53) targeting adolescent students’ motivation for STEM subjects. While some interventions showed positive effects on a variety of motivational constructs and academic outcomes, others showed mixed or non-significant effects. We recommend that researchers more frequently examine moderating variables that might limit interventions’ results, including individual-level variables such as gender, contextual-level variables such as the subject in which an intervention was conducted, and design-level variables such as intervention length. Additionally, researchers might better align their interventions with motivation theory. Future research should address these limitations so that the results of successful interventions can better inform educational policy and practice.