Ethnic Identity Development and Acculturation Preferences Among Minority and Majority Youth: Norms and Contact

This article tests a longitudinal model of the antecedents and consequences of changes in identification with indigenous (Mapuche) among indigenous and nonindigenous youth in Chilean school contexts over a 6‐month period (633 nonindigenous and 270 Mapuche students, M_ages = 12.47 and 12.80 years, respectively). Results revealed that in‐group norms supporting contact and quality of intergroup contact at Time 1 predicted student's changes in Mapuche identification at Time 2, which in turn predicted changes in support for adoption of Chilean culture and maintenance of Mapuche culture at Time 2; some of the relationships between these variables were found to be moderated by age and ethnicity. Conceptual and policy implications are addressed in the Discussion .     

Signal constellations in the hyperbolic plane: A proposal for new communication systems

Signal constellations in the hyperbolic plane are provided as an alternative to traditional signal constellations in the Euclidean plane, since channels may actually exist for which the latter signal constellations are not as suitable as the former. A hyperbolic gaussian probability density function, based solely on geometrical considerations, is derived to determine the performance of the hyperbolic signal constellations. Benefits result from an approach conceived in terms of reduced signal-to-noise ratio, needed to achieve a prescribed error rate and equivalent optimum receiver complexity.     

Cross-over, thresholds, and interactions between science and technology: lessons for less-developed countries

Presently, science is an important precondition for the economic development of less-developed countries. This paper discusses the specific roles that science has at initial stages of development, pointing to its contributions for the countries’ absorptive capability. Furthermore, this paper specifies the role of science for initiating a positive interaction with technological development, since initial stages of development and during catching up processes. For less-developed countries, neither the linear model of technology nor an “inverted linear model” would take place: a more interactive approach is necessary for development. Using statistics of patents (USPTO) and scientific papers (ISI) for 120 countries (1974, 1982, 1990, and 1998), this paper analyses some evidences on thresholds levels of scientific production to originate an interactive relationship between science and technology. These data also document that the value of this threshold seems to double from one period to another. Although this paper presents tentative results, some policy implications are discussed: scientific institutional building must be seen as a component of modern industrial policies.     

Portuguese science teachers' education,attitudes, and practice relative to the issue of alternative conceptions

Many studies have shown that students of all school levels hold alternative conceptions that differ from the scientific conceptions transmitted by the school. These results raise some questions about the efficacy of traditional teaching and stress the need for using teaching strategies that explicitly take into account the alternative conceptions that students bring to the science classes. This issue has recently been raised and widely discussed throughout Portugal and the proposals for the new science syllabuses advise teachers to take it into account. However, the number of studies investigating both the teachers' attitudes towards this issue and the use of teaching strategies based on students' alternative conceptions is very limited. This article aims to present the results obtained from science teachers about their attitudes towards students' alternative conceptions and the use of teaching strategies based on these conceptions. The results may contribute to the planning of in-service courses.     

Paternal Sensitivity and Children’s Cognitive and Socioemotional Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review

In a series of meta-analyses, paternal sensitivity was associated with children’s (age range: 7 months–9 years) overall cognitive functioning (N = 3,193; k = 23; r = .19), including language skills (k = 9; r = .21), cognitive ability (k = 9; r = .18), and executive function (k = 8; r = .19). Paternal sensitivity was not associated with children’s overall socioemotional functioning (N = 2,924; k = 24; r = −.03) or internalizing problems, but it was associated with children’s emotion regulation (k = 7; r = .22) and externalizing problems (k = 19; r = −.08). In the broad cognitive functioning, executive function, broad socioemotional functioning, and externalizing problems meta-analyses, child age was a significant moderator.     

The Impact of Advancement Via Individual Determination on the College Readiness of First-Generation Hispanic Students in an Urban South Texas High School

The Urban Review - This study examined the phenomenon of college readiness in Hispanic first-generation college students. The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between...     

Support services for higher degree research students: a survey of three Australian universities

A survey was conducted across three Australian universities to identify the types and format of support services available for higher degree research (HDR, or MA and Ph.D.) students. The services were classified with regards to availability, location and accessibility. A comparative tool was developed to help institutions categorise their services in terms of academic, administrative, social and settlement, language and miscellaneous (other) supports. All three universities showed similarities in the type of academic support services offered, while differing in social and settlement and language support services in terms of the location and the level of accessibility of these services. The study also examined the specific support services available for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students. The three universities differed in their emphases in catering to CALD needs, with their allocation of resources reflecting these differences. The organisation of these services within the universities was further assessed to determine possible factors that may influence the effective delivery of these services, by considering HDR and CALD student specific issues. The findings and tools developed by this study may be useful to HDR supervisors and university administrators in identifying key support services to better improve outcomes for the HDR students and universities.     

Student satisfaction in higher education: a meta-analytic study

This paper discusses the results of a meta-analysis performed to identify key antecedent and consequent constructs of satisfaction in higher education. We offer an integrated model to achieve a better understanding of satisfaction in the context of higher education. To accomplish this objective, we identified 83 studies that were valid and relevant to the research objective of the current study, generating a total of 469 observations. We identified studies published from 1986 to 2016 and analyzed six antecedent dimensions (perceived value of educational services, resources provided to the student, service quality perception, marketing orientation, identity of the higher education institution, university environment) and one consequent dimension related to satisfaction. The 7 dimensions exhibited a total of 51 relationships. We believe that the originality of the findings clearly contributes to future academic research in higher education.     

The application of production functions to the higher education system — some examples from Portuguese universities

Production functions were established for the Arts and Law Faculties of Coimbra and Lisbon Universities and for the Higher Institute of Engineering of Lisbon, in which the number of enrolled students was related to the number of professors and assistants. It was possible to find in Coimbra and Lisbon Universities the existence of possibilities of substitution among those factors and economies of scale. In the case of the Higher Institute of Engineering there seems to exist a relation of complementarity between the number of professors and assistants. Also with regard to this Institute, a production function for graduates was estimated which relates them to the expenditures on academic staff and materials. It was found that in this case it was necessary to introduce time as a representative of technological progress, although it was found to be negative. These results are discussed, and the interest and the limitations of the use of production functions for educational management purposes are outlined.     

Uneducating South Africa: The failure to address the 1910–1993 legacy

This paper analyses various data on the South African schooling system since 1910. The data collected for the study cover a wide range of education indicators, from pupil enrolments, pupil teacher ratios, real expenditure (aggregate and per capita), matriculation pass rates, to some indicators of the quality of matriculation passes. The authors provide an indication of both inputs into and outputs of the educational system. In broad terms, the data indicate that from an educational perspective South Africa followed a modernisation trajectory that, although it drew ever larger numbers of pupils into the schooling system, was partial, distorted and fundamentally dysfunctional. The educational process was strongly affected by racial factors. To the extent that education is an important determinant of long run growth performance of economies, this implies that South Africa's educational policies were inimical to its long run growth.