Differential effects of instructional support on learning in simultation environments

This article investigates a complex Aptitude Treatment Interaction (ATI), of intelligence and metacognitive skill as aptitudes with structuredness of learning environment as treatment. A more structured learning environment is usually regarded as beneficial to learning in low intelligence students, whereas it may not affect or may even interfere with learning in high intelligence students. The overall analyses of four studies are presented, including a total of 99 subjects. High and low intelligence novices passed through either structured or unstructured simulation environments in the domains of heat theory, electricity, or statistics. Thinking-aloud protocols were analyzed in order to assess the metacognitive skillfulness of subjects. Several learning tests were administered, assessing both declarative and procedural domain knowledge. The results show that structuredness of learning environment did not affect learning in high intelligence subjects, irrespective of their level of metacognitive skillfulness. However, the structured learning environment yielded enhanced learning performances in low intelligence subjects with a low level of metacognitive skillfulness, while it interfered with learning in low intelligence subjects with a relatively high level of metacognitive skillfulness.     

Writing about the past: the impact of different authentic instructional material on students’ argument writing in history

European Journal of Psychology of Education - Recent research has repeatedly raised the question of how the authenticity of learning material affects learning outcomes. This question is...     

Alignment 2.0: Strategic use of new internet technologies in government

This paper challenges the view that strategies for using Web 2.0 should primarily be based upon technological characteristics. The value of the organizational strategic alignment approach for developing specific operational Web 2.0 strategies for government organizations is explored both theoretically and empirically. On the basis of a review of the literature we conclude that there are no a priori reasons why the idea of a fit between IT strategy and business strategic orientation cannot be applied to the development of operational Web 2.0 strategies for government organizations. The empirical exploration based on intervention research at the Dutch Department of Education results in the identification of five configurations: organizational transparency, organizational interactions, policy sector transparency, policy sector interactions and process and policy innovation. These configurations are logically consistent with the strategic orientations of the three directorates of the Department of Education. This overview does not pretend to be exhaustive but validates the idea that an alignment approach leads to differences in operational strategies. The configuration approach provides organizations with useful a starting point for developing their Web 2.0 strategies.     

Energy and macronutrient intake in adolescent sprint athletes: a follow-up study

Macronutrient intake, height, weight, and body composition of 60 adolescent sprint athletes were estimated every 6 months over 3 years. Seven-day food records were analysed based on the Belgian and Dutch food databanks. The age of participants at the start of the 3-year study was 14.8 ± 1.6 years for female athletes and 14.7 ± 1.9 years for male athletes. Girls and boys gained height (3.4 ± 4.6 cm and 5.9 ± 6.6 cm respectively) and weight (5.6 ± 3.5 kg and 8.7 ± 5.5 kg respectively), whereas percent body fat remained unchanged in both girls and boys (around 17.0% and 8.5% respectively). Mean protein intake of around 1.5 g · kg?1 body weight was within recommendations on each occasion for both sexes. Carbohydrate intakes between 5 and 7 g · kg?1 body weight support a training programme of moderate intensity. Total and saturated fat intakes were high at the start of the study (girls: 31.8 ± 3.5% and 12.2 ± 2.0% of energy intake; boys: 30.3 ± 4.6% and 12.0 ± 1.9% of energy intake) and it appeared to be difficult to achieve and maintain lower intakes. Consistent low fluid intakes around 40 ml · kg?1 body weight were observed. General non-stringent advice for improvement of the diet resulted in significant favourable changes only for the consumption of wholegrain bread, vegetables, and soft drinks. Dietary habits of adolescent sprint athletes are not always according to guidelines and are relatively stable but repeated advice can induce moderate improvements.     

The Minor Seminarian

Academic achievement was not found to be associated with social class position for freshmen minor (high school) seminarians. Even so it is suggested that there are factors related with academic achievement that are class linked. Such factors as intelligence, ethnicity, national cultural origin, and even psycho-social attitudes deserve further consideration. It is further suggested that the operational extension of academic achievement to student grades may be deceptively simplistic. What is needed to be known are the conditions under which academic achievement becomes operative. The class structure of a minor seminary not only tells the probable community from which prospective candidates were drawn– upper, middle, or lower class– it also may give insights into the nature of hypothesized relationships. Understanding of the whole educational process leading to religious careers awaits future research.     

Social media strategies: Understanding the differences between North American police departments

Within a short timeframe, social media have become to be widely used in government organizations. Social media gurus assume that the transformational capacities of social media result in similar communication strategies in different organizations. According to them, government is transforming into a user-generated state. This paper investigates this claim empirically by testing the claim of convergence in social media practices in three North-American police departments (Boston, Washington DC and Toronto). The research shows that the social media strategies are widely different: the Boston Police Department has developed a ‘push strategy’ while the Metropolitan Police Department in DC has developed a ‘push and pull strategy and the Toronto Police Service a ‘networking strategy’. The paper concludes that a combination of contextual and path-dependency factors accounts for differences in the emerging social media strategies of government organizations. Social media have a logic of their own but this logic only manifests itself if it lands on fertile soil in a government bureaucracy.     

Teaching and learning in higher education: Recent trends

In the last decade, the questioning of traditional teaching and learning methods and instructional systems and the search for more effective alternatives have gained momentum in higher education. Recent trends can be grouped as follows:

Introducing Pre-university Students to Primary Scientific Literature Through Argumentation Analysis

Primary scientific literature is one of the most important means of communication in science, written for peers in the scientific community. Primary literature provides an authentic context for showing students how scientists support their claims. Several teaching strategies have been proposed using (adapted) scientific publications, some for secondary education, but none of these strategies focused specifically on scientific argumentation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a strategy for teaching pre-university students to read unadapted primary scientific literature, translated into students’ native language, based on a new argumentation analysis framework. This framework encompasses seven types of argumentative elements: motive, objective, main conclusion, implication, support, counterargument and refutation. During the intervention, students studied two research articles. We monitored students’ reading comprehension and their opinion on the articles and activities. After the intervention, we measured students’ ability to identify the argumentative elements in a third unadapted and translated research article. The presented framework enabled students to analyse the article by identifying the motive, objective, main conclusion and implication and part of the supports. Students stated that they found these activities useful. Most students understood the text on paragraph level and were able to read the article with some help for its vocabulary. We suggest that primary scientific literature has the potential to show students important aspects of the scientific process and to learn scientific vocabulary in an authentic context.