Variety of attitudes towards the comprehensive university

Higher education policy-making may attempt far-reaching reform of the post-secondary system and its inherited institutions. It may be oriented towards the replacement of distinctions between the academic and the non-academic as well as the transformation of the traditional university concept by means of a new conception of the organization of the post-secondary sector, the comprehensive university. Higher education policy-making may display not only great ambition but also policy extravagance. Maybe the Swedish 1977 higher education reform is the most ambitious attempt so far to implement the notions inherent in the comprehensive university. Maybe the element of policy extravagance was at times most conspicuous in the extended period of policy-making in Sweden culminating in the 1977 reform bill as it was even suggested that the universities of Uppsala (1477) and Lund (1668) were to be officially designated Högskolan i Uppsala and Högskolan i Lund-Malmö respectively. It may be interesting to find out the attitudes of those responsible for the day-to-day operations of the universities and colleges. This article presents the results of the first national survey of Swedish teachers and researchers in so far as they pertain to the evaluation of the 1977 reform.     

An information-processing analysis of children's accuracy in predicting the appearance of rotated stimuli

Children's ability to discriminate reflections and rotations of visual stimuli was examined using a kinetic imagery task. It was hypothesized that success would be related to the number and placement of orientation markers on the stimuli, as well as whether or not reflections had to be discriminated from simple rotations. 40 4- and 5-year-old children were directed to imagine how a stimulus would look if rotated to a specified location and asked to indicate the appearance of the reoriented stimulus by selecting the correct option from a number of foils. 48 of the items required only discrimination of a reoriented stimulus. The other 48 also required discrimination of a reflection of the reoriented stimulus. Stimuli differed in the number of orientation cues on the edges of the figures. Results revealed that prediction accuracy was associated with the existence of orientation markers on the stimuli, as well as age, sex, type of discrimination, and several interactions among the variables. Findings were discussed in comparison to a priori predictions based on an analysis of how children might use orientation information when performing mental rotation tasks.     

Instructional Investment or Administrative Bloat: The Effects of Charter System Conversion on Resource Allocations and Staffing Patterns

Despite the growing call for local autonomy and flexibility, few scholars have examined the role of school district–level flexibility on resource allocation and staffing patterns. Leveraging the charter system law within the State of Georgia, we utilize a generalized difference-in-differences approach to estimate the impact of flexibility of system-level expenditures and staffing changes. We find evidence of increases in central office spending and staffing post-conversion to a charter system. In addition, we find evidence that local support is replaced by the state-funded supplemental funding.     

The Conceptual Framework for the Development of a Mathematics Performance Assessment Instrument

How can you align instruction, learning, and assessment in an educationally sound way? How can you define and measure competence in mathematics? What areas of competence do you need to specify and how? How can one evaluate the validity and consequences of using a particular assessment instrument or technique?     

Embedding Interventions to Promote Self-Determination within Multitiered Systems of Supports

Schools are increasingly exploring the implementation of multitiered systems of support. This article reviews the literature pertaining to efforts to promote self-determination to provide initial direction as to how interventions and supports to promote self-determination could be implemented within a tiered framework. The intent is to provide direction to the field on how such an approach can engage all students—including students with and without disabilities—in their learning across the lifespan to promote positive school and postschool outcomes. Specifically, we review interventions and supports that have been described in the literature pertaining to self-determination, organizing our review and analysis around the traditional three-tier approach. Implications for future research and development to promote the universal applicability of self-determination are discussed.     

Analysing the experiences of casual relief teachers in Australian primary schools using practice architecture theory

This study examines the professional experiences of casual relief teachers (CRTs) and some of the challenges they face through the lens of practice architecture theory. Practice architecture theory considers human activity through the multi-layered lens of sayings, doings and relatings. A survey was used to collect responses from 104 CRTs who are teaching or have previously taught in Australian primary schools. The responses were examined using thematic content analysis to gain insights into their experiences of professional practice. In addition, the demographic information from the survey identified three main categories of CRTs which contributed to better understanding of distinct needs and experiences of each type of CRT. Results indicate that many participants saw casual teaching as a negative and alienating experience due to lack of access to school information, lack of support for accreditation and feelings of exclusion from school communities. The need for greater access to information about professional learning was also highlighted. However, others enjoyed the flexibility and sense of belonging they experienced as CRTs. The present study contributes to CRT research by identifying similarities and differences across the three CRT groups and applying practice architectures as a new theoretical lens through which to analyse their professional experiences.     

The dynamics of R&D network in the IT industry

In this paper, we provide an empirical analysis of evolving networks of successful R&D collaborations in the IT industry (consisting of firms that obtained patents in the technological category of computers and communication) in the U.S. between 1985 and 1995. We first show that the R&D network has become more extensive, more clustered, and more unequal in the sense that ‘stars’ have emerged in the network. We then analyze the effect of the existing network structure in the process of new R&D collaboration formation. We control for unobserved similarities among firms based on the community structures within the network that the algorithm developed by Girvan and Newman (2004) identifies and find a significant cyclic closure and preferential-attachment effect.     

Preschoolers Continually Adjust Their Epistemic Trust Based on an Informant's Ongoing Accuracy

Children aged 4–7 years (N = 120) played four rounds of a find‐the‐sticker game. For each round, an informant looked into two cups and made a claim about which cup held a sticker. At the end of each round, children guessed the sticker's location, and then the sticker's actual location was revealed. For three of the rounds, the informant accurately reported the sticker's location. But critically, for one round—either Round 1, 2, or 3—she was inaccurate. Children continually adjusted their trust in the informant as they obtained more information about her accuracy. Relations between the informant's pattern of accuracy and children's trust were robust, neither mediated nor moderated by children inferences about her intent or traits.