CREATIVE WRITING: FOSTERING VERBAL GIFTS IN YOUNG PEOPLE

In the context of German educational projects for gifted youth, an interdisciplinary model of identification and fostering of verbally gifted adolescents in an out of school course ("creative writing") was developed and carried out at Hamburg University from 1984 to 1990. The present paper offers an introduction to its main objectives and to the identification and selection process, the curriculum and the results of an evaluation, with concluding remarks on redefining the concept of giftedness.

     

Selective revealing in open innovation processes: The case of embedded Linux

This paper provides a quantitative study (N = 268) of patterns of free revealing of firm-developed innovations within embedded Linux, a type of open source software (OSS). I find that firms, without being obliged to do so, contribute many of their own developments back to public embedded Linux code, eliciting and indeed receiving informal development support from other firms. That is, they perform a part of their product development open to the public—an unthinkable idea for traditionally minded managers. Such openness obviously entails the challenge of protecting one's intellectual property. I find that firms address this issue by revealing selectively. They reveal, on average, about half of the code they have developed, while protecting the other half by various means. Revealing is strongly heterogeneous among firms. Multivariate analysis can partly explain this heterogeneity by firm characteristics and the firm's purpose behind revealing. An analysis of reasons for revealing and of the type of revealed code shows that different types of firms have different rationales for openness. Implications for management are that the conflict between downsides and benefits of openness appears manageable. Provided selective revealing is practiced deliberately, the opportunities of open development dominate.     

Passion and motivation for studying: predicting academic engagement and burnout in university students

Research on the dualistic model of passion has investigated harmonious and obsessive passion in many domains. However, few studies have investigated passion for studying and the role passion for studying plays in student engagement and well‐being. The present study investigated the relationships between harmonious and obsessive passion for studying and academic engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption) and burnout (exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy) in 105 university students, controlling for the effects of autonomous and controlled motivation. Both harmonious and obsessive passion explained variance in academic engagement and burnout beyond autonomous and controlled motivation: harmonious passion predicted higher dedication and lower cynicism, obsessive passion predicted higher absorption, and both harmonious and obsessive passion predicted higher vigour and lower inefficacy. The findings suggest that passion for studying explains individual differences in students’ academic engagement and burnout beyond autonomous and controlled motivation and thus deserves more attention from educational psychology.     

The interplay between individual and collective knowledge: technologies for organisational learning and knowledge building

This article presents a framework model that defines knowledge building as a co-evolution of cognitive and social systems. Our model brings together Nonaka's knowledge-creating theory and Luhmann's systems theory. It is demonstrated how collaborative knowledge building may occur – in an ideal situation – within an organisation, when people interact with each other using shared digital artefacts. For this purpose, three different technologies are introduced as examples: social-tagging systems, pattern-based task-management systems, and wikis. These examples have been chosen to demonstrate that knowledge building can occur with respect to both declarative and procedural knowledge. The differences and similarities between these technologies, as far as their potential for organisational knowledge building is concerned, are discussed in the light of the framework model.     

Parallel assessment of nutrition and activity in athletes: validation against doubly labelled water, 24-h urea excretion, and indirect calorimetry

The assessment of nutrition and activity in athletes requires accurate and precise methods. The aim of this study was to validate a protocol for parallel assessment of diet and exercise against doubly labelled water, 24-h urea excretion, and respiratory gas exchange. The participants were 14 male triathletes under normal training conditions. Energy intake and doubly labelled water were weakly associated with each other (r = 0.69, standard error of estimate [SEE] = 304 kcal x day(-1)). Protein intake was strongly correlated with 24-h urea (r = 0.89) but showed considerable individual variation (SEE = 0.34 g kg(-1) x day(-1)). Total energy expenditure based on recorded activities was highly correlated with doubly labelled water (r = 0.95, SEE = 195 kcal x day(-1)) but was proportionally biased. During running and cycling, estimated exercise energy expenditure was highly correlated with gas exchange (running: r = 0.89, SEE = 1.6 kcal x min(-1); cycling: r = 0.95, SEE = 1.4 kcal x min(-1)). High exercise energy expenditure was slightly underestimated during running. For nutrition data, variations appear too large for precise measurements in individual athletes, which is a common problem of dietary assessment methods. Despite the high correlations of total energy expenditure and exercise energy expenditure with reference methods, a correction for systematic errors is necessary for the valid estimation of energetic requirements in individual athletes.     

Wie erfolgreich sind Gymnasiasten ohne Gymnasialempfehlung?

This contribution has the objective of analyzing the school success of pupils, whose parents chose a school with a higher academic profile than recommended by their teachers. On the basis of longitudinal data for a complete transition cohort of 81,811 pupils in Lower Saxony, Germany, we will investigate the link between teachers’ recommendations for school-type at the end of year 4, the parents’ choice of school-type and pupils’ ultimate success. The criterion used here for measuring success is reaching year 7 without repeating a year. 15% of the parents chose a school-type with a higher academic profile than had been recommended. All groups of pupils with conflicting recommendations and eventual choice—whether for the academically-oriented Gymnasium or the more vocationally-oriented Realschule—were generally successful. Overall 12% of the total sample is successfully studying at a school-type of higher academic profile than recommended. These results mean that educational resources are not being fully exploited and educational chances restricted.     

Fostering the reading comprehension of secondary school students through peer-assisted learning: Effects on strategy knowledge, strategy use, and task performance

Based on the work of Fuchs and Fuchs [Fuchs, D., & Fuchs, L. S. (2001). Peer-assisted learning strategies in reading: Extensions for Kindergarten, first grade and high school. Remedial & Special Education, 22, 15–21], this study examined the effects of a peer-assisted learning strategies (PALS) program on the reading comprehension of 7th-grade students. In a pretest–posttest (active) control group design, eight intact classes consisting of 186 students were assigned either to a PALS condition or to a traditional instruction condition (TI). In 17 lessons, students were instructed by their regular teachers in the understanding of age-appropriate reading material. Treatment success was assessed with both performance-related (reading comprehension) and strategy-related (declarative and procedural strategy knowledge) test tasks. At posttest, PALS students (a) scored higher on experimenter-constructed and standardized comprehension tests, (b) achieved higher scores on declarative and procedural measures of summarizing strategies, and (c) improved to a greater extent in their understanding of self-regulated reading activities than TI students.     

Softwareentwicklung in der Medizintechnik am Beispiel der medizinischen Bildverarbeitung

Zusammenfassung  Dieser Beitrag gibt einen überblick über unterschiedliche Bildgebungs- und Bildverarbeitungsverfahren, die heute in den Kliniken verwendet werden. Es wird die gesamte Bildkette von der Bildverarbeitung über die Bildverbesserung bis hin zur Rekonstruktion und Bildregistrierung beschrieben. Die einzelnen Themenkomplexe werden dabei aus medizinischer und technischer Sicht diskutiert. Aus den klinischen Anforderungen und den gesetzlichen Randbedingungen folgen wichtige Grunds?tze für die Architekturkonzepte und den Entwicklungsprozess medizinischer Bildverarbeitungssysteme. CR subject classification  I.4.3; I.4.5; I.4.6; I.5.5