Outside directors on the board and innovative firm performance

We investigate how outside directors on supervisory boards influence innovative activities of the firms they advise and monitor. Based on panel data on the largest German companies, the econometric analysis shows a positive influence of external executives on innovative firm performance, measured by patent applications. Differentiating between outside directors from innovative and non-innovative companies reveals that only outside directors from innovative firms increase patenting activities at the firms they advise and monitor. This effect increases with the technological proximity between the appointing firm and the outsider's home firm. Outside directors from non-innovative firms are negatively associated with the appointing firm's innovativeness. The results indicate that external executives with an appropriate professional background can provide valuable specific knowledge and expertise to the board.     

The involvement of migrant mothers in their children’s education: cultural capital and transnational class processes

This paper analyses the kinds of capital, practices and investments that are implicated in the participation of migrant mothers in the educational careers of their children, drawing on a Bourdieusian framework. We present findings of a study of Muslim Iraqi mothers with school-aged children in Australia, based on 47 interviews with 25 participants. The study identifies different modes of involvement in children’s education and connects these to mothers’ cultural and social capital. Involvement, and its effectiveness, is analysed through the analytical categories of (i) high capital-high involvement; (ii) low capital-high involvement; and (iii) low capital-minimal direct involvement. The paper contributes to the theorisation of family–school relations in the context of migration, and develops a more nuanced perspective for studying social class positioning and repositioning.     

Disrupted Lessons in Engineering Robotics: Pivoting Knowledge Transfer From Physical to Virtual Learning Environments

Journal of Science Education and Technology - This study examined the effects of an Arduino microrobot activity on college students’ interest in robotics through three specific objectives:...     

The effects of preliteracy knowledge,schooling, and summer vacation on literacy acquisition

What causes the literacy gap and can schools compensate for it? The authors investigated 3 drivers of the gap: preliteracy knowledge, schooling, and the summer vacation. Longitudinal literacy data over 5 time points were collected on 126 five-year-olds attending higher or lower socioeconomic status (SES) schools during their first 15 months of school. There were several noteworthy findings: (a) gaps in preliteracy knowledge at school entry favor higher SES schools, (b) preliteracy knowledge predicted later progress over and above SES and gender, (c) during the school year there was a widening of the gap between higher SES schools and lower SES schools in reading and spelling skills, and (d) children attending lower SES schools exhibited losses during summer whereas children attending higher SES schools nearly always gained. Contrary to previous studies, the present results indicated that when there are concentrations of children from higher and lower SES in schools located in the children's respective SES areas, the achievement gap widens.     

The effects of consultee-centered consultation on teacher behavior

The purpose of this investigation was to respond to two deficiencies in past consultation research. It described the consultee-centered consultation techniques which were used, and it attempted to demonstrate the effectiveness of consultee-centered consultation in changing observable teacher behavior. Evidence was presented to show how consultation was followed by a reduction in the negative verbal behavior of two out of three teachers who participated in the study. An attempt was made to show how this study related to Caplan's (1970) assumptions regarding consultee-centered case-consultation. It was concluded that multiple baseline designs offer a viable approach to experimental research in consultation with small numbers of subjects.     

Improving and Maintaining Torque Accuracy in Aerospace Manufacturing: A Case Study

Needs assessment is a systematic and systemic process intended to identify and define gaps between current performance and desired performance. Needs assessments are most beneficial if they address issues that affect successful accomplishment of operational or tactical processes as well as outcomes that allow an organization to meet its overall strategic goals. A team of graduate students took on a needs assessment project to ascertain the causes of declining accuracy in a key task in an aerospace manufacturing process. The project encountered numerous barriers within the client organization, but the team systematically applied human performance technology methods in multiple stages to gather and analyze the available data. The end result was a set of identified root causes and recommended interventions focused on improving performance.