The heyday of paedology in Belgium (1899–1914): A positivistic dream that did not come true

At the beginning of the 20th Century Belgium was said to be a center of the so-called paedological research. Since 1899 Medard Schuyten directed the internationally well known paedological laboratory in Antwerp; in 1912, Josefa Ioteyko founded in Brussels, as an outcome of the first world congress for paedology in Brussels in 1911, the “International Faculty of Paedology”. Mainly on the basis of these Belgian sources, this chapter demonstrates how much the human sciences at the time were captivated by natural scientific thought and scientific optimism.     

Indianapolis I3: the third generation Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems.

In 2001, the Regenstrief Institute for Health Care and the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) began an IAIMS planning effort to create a vision and a tactical plan for the first Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems (IAIMS) implementation to cross a large area and include unaffiliated institutions. A number of elements made this planning effort unique. Among these elements were the existence of a network infrastructure that supported the Indianapolis Network for Patient Care, the existence of a mature medical informatics program at the Regenstrief Institute, and the existence of a wide-area knowledge network fostered by the IUSM libraries. However, the leadership for a strong information technology role in the IUSM that could promote collaboration in support of education and research across the diverse Indianapolis hospital systems had been lacking. By bringing together various groups, each with a commitment to improve health care quality and public health across the Indianapolis metropolitan area, regardless of individual institutional affiliation, the strategic directions for I3-Indianapolis IAIMS Initiative have been defined and the foundations for a third generation IAIMS construct have been laid in Indianapolis, Indiana.     

Business Models for Content Delivery: An Empirical Analysis of the Newspaper and Magazine Industry

Although there have been efforts to define, describe, and classify business models, current literature does not provide a structured method of comparing business models between companies within or between industries. This article outlines a conceptual business model and proposes 5 components that a business model for content delivery should include: the product, the consumer, the revenue, the price, and the delivery. By using the newspaper and magazine industry as an example, we empirically test the impact of these 5 components on profit. Furthermore, we address 2 key issues content providers are confronted with when selling digital content: First, how much of the digital content is available free or at cost, and second, is the digital product as complementary or a substitute to the physical product. Finally, we assess the risk of cannibalizing the physical product with the digital one by a multiple regression analysis.     

Institutional policy process improvement: using structurating activity theory to inform practice

Organizational communication scholars are increasingly called upon to use theoretical knowledge to address problematic processes in public institutions. This article reports a process improvement project focused on a university conflict of interest (COI) policy as an example of how scholars can engage theory to improve ongoing policy processes. The project team included communication scholars and research administration staff who designed, implemented, and evaluated the mixed-methods project guided by structurating activity theory. Baseline survey results were used to design the process improvement project. Results of the follow-up survey indicate that researchers who participated in some aspect of the process improvement project (i.e. attending a policy café, using the redesigned website, or reading the new Quick Reference Guide) reported higher levels of policy communication and knowledge and more positive attitudes toward the COI policy than researchers who had not engaged with process improvement efforts. We offer theoretical and practical implications of results for organizational communication scholars and practitioners.     

Converging Higher Education Systems in a Global Setting: the example of France and India

We present a comparative survey between the French and Indian higher education systems. In spite of their respective idiosyncratic features, we show that the two countries have both evolved comprehensively toward a knowledge-based society, in order to ensure the prosperity of their citizens. Secondly, we single out a threefold convergence between the two higher education systems on academic, technological and institutional grounds.     

Software product evolution for Intellectual Capital Management: The case of Meta4 PeopleNet

Software must evolve in order to adapt to new demands and scenarios. In the case of packaged software that can be customized, this evolution implies the maintenance of both out-of-the-box and customized functionality alike. New user interface technologies provide a way to interact with applications that software vendors are forced to incorporate in order to meet new user and market requirements. Packaged software vendors are facing software evolution processes in order to attract more customers and conserve the existing ones. This case analysis describes the evolution of packaged software, Meta4 PeopleNet, towards the addiction of Rich Internet Applications features to a Human and Intellectual Capital Management tool. The findings and lessons learned presented in this case study provide useful insights for packaged software vendors facing software product evolution.     

Approaches to teaching in mainstream and separate postsecondary classrooms

The study examined attitudes toward teaching reported by university instructors who normally teach hearing students (with the occasional deaf or hard of hearing student) and by instructors who normally teach deaf and hard of hearing students at the same institution. Overall, a view of instruction as information transmission was associated with a teacher-focused approach to instruction, whereas viewing instruction as a means of promoting conceptual change was associated with a student-focused approach. Instructors in mainstream classrooms were more oriented toward information transmission than conceptual change, whereas instructors experienced in separate classrooms for deaf and hard of hearing students reported seeking to promote conceptual change in students and adopting more student-focused approaches to teaching. These results are consistent with previous findings concerning instructors' approaches to teaching and deaf and hard of hearing students' approaches to learning, and may help explain recent findings regarding student outcomes in separate versus mainstream secondary classrooms.     

Teachers’ beliefs about improving transfer of algebraic skills from mathematics into physics in senior pre-university education

ABSTRACT

Students in senior pre-university education encounter difficulties in the application of mathematics into physics. This paper presents the outcome of an explorative qualitative study of teachers’ beliefs about improving the transfer of algebraic skills from mathematics into physics. We interviewed 10 mathematics and 10 physics teachers using a semi-structured questionnaire that was based on an algebraic transfer problem. Almost all teachers acknowledged this transfer problem and considered it to be important. We found a continuum of teachers’ beliefs about aspects influencing transfer, including beliefs on improving this transfer. Together with identified improvement aspects about coherent mathematics education, these may help reduce physics teachers’ frustrations who spend extra time on re-teaching mathematics. Teachers think that transfer does not happen, because students see both subjects as separate disciplines. Contrary to most physics teachers, most mathematics teachers do not feel the need to collaborate with physics teachers. We found two extreme, opposite beliefs about the transfer of algebraic skills into physics. An intermediate group believes that only an integrated approach can solve the transfer problem. Some of the teachers’ beliefs could be organised into a beliefs system. Further research could investigate to which extent such beliefs systems exist and which beliefs these contain.     

Racial identity and academic attainment among African American adolescents

In this study, the relationships between racial identity and academic outcomes for African American adolescents were explored. In examining race beliefs, the study differentiated among (a) importance of race (centrality), (b) group affect (private regard), and (c) perceptions of societal beliefs (public regard) among 606 African American 17-year-old adolescents. Using cluster analysis, profiles of racial identity variables were created, and these profile groups were related to educational beliefs, performance, and later attainment (high school completion and college attendance). Results indicated cluster differences across study outcomes. Also, the relationships between academic attitudes and academic attainment differed across groups. Finally, the paper includes a discussion on the need to consider variation in how minority youth think about group membership in better understanding their academic development.