Developmental changes and individual differences in young children's moral judgments

Developmental trajectories and individual differences in 70 American middle‐income 2½‐ to 4‐year olds’ moral judgments were examined 3 times across 1 year using latent growth modeling. At Wave 1, children distinguished hypothetical moral from conventional transgressions on all criteria, but only older preschoolers did so when rating deserved punishment. Children’s understanding of moral transgressions as wrong independent of authority grew over time. Greater surgency and effortful control were both associated with a better understanding of moral generalizability. Children higher in effortful control also grew more slowly in understanding that moral rules are not alterable and that moral transgressions are wrong independent of rules. Girls demonstrated sharper increases across time than boys in understanding the nonalterability of moral rules.     

Overcoming Graduate Students' Negative Perceptions of Statistics

Although there has been some attention in the literature to such issues as students' attitudes toward statistics, instructors are still constantly faced with the challenge to engage students; understand their perceptions, motivations, and interests; and deal with their reluctance and negative attitudes toward the field of statistics. The purpose of the present study was to (1) examine students' attitudes toward statistics; (2) identify characteristics of students with the most negative attitudes toward statistics; (3) determine methods of statistics instruction that students most prefer; and (4) present strategies to overcome fears, resistance, anxiety, and negative attitudes and enhance the learning environment. The findings from the study of 195 graduate social work students demonstrate that factors contributing to statistics anxiety include math phobia, lack of relevance to social work, instructor's characteristics, and classroom environment. Among the preferred instructional methods students identified helpful strategies such as instructors' being attentive to students' anxiety, setting a slow course pace, and providing additional tutoring. The study findings suggested three major areas for enhancing statistics learning: (1) fostering environment that is nonthreatening, friendly, and conducive to learning; (2) clarifying statistical concepts in plain terms; and (3) offering practical skills relevant to students' field of specialization.     

Why are written picture naming latencies (not) longer than spoken naming?

The comparison between spoken and handwritten production in picture naming tasks represents an important source of information for building models of cognitive processes involved in writing. Studies using this methodology systematically reported longer latencies for handwritten than for spoken production. To uncover the origin of this difference across modalities, we compared the latencies of spoken picture naming and two written picture naming conditions: one in which the participants could see and monitor their handwriting (visible-condition), and one in which they could not monitor their production (masked-condition). Previously reported differences between spoken and handwritten naming latencies were replicated in the standard visible-condition. By contrast, production latencies were faster in the written masked-condition than in the visible-condition and did not differ from spoken production latencies. These results suggest that longer handwriting latencies, in comparison with speaking latencies, are due to the delayed onset in handwriting in conditions where the sheet is visible. The implications of these results on both written production models and experimental methods are discussed.     

Preservice teachers’ work stress, self-efficacy, and occupational commitment in four countries

In this study, we examine the teaching-related stress, self-efficacy, and occupational commitment of preservice teachers from two culturally western and two culturally eastern countries. The sample included 1,187 participants from Canada (n?=?379), England (n?=?203), Hong Kong (n?=?211), and Thailand (n?=?394). Self-efficacy partially reduced (mediated) the effect of stress from student behavior and from workload on commitment in three of four contexts. Mediation tests with country as moderator revealed significant differences in the strength of the mediating effect across the four contexts. The results suggest that teachers’ self-efficacy changes the way in which work stress influences the commitment to continue teaching, although cultural milieu influences the nature of the relationship according to context.     

Fellows' Perceptions of a Mandatory Reflective Electronic Portfolio in a Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program

Electronic portfolios (ePortfolios) can be useful for evaluating and documenting mastery of competencies. We investigated geriatric medicine fellows' perceptions of an ePortfolio. We conducted surveys and focus groups followed by quantitative and qualitative data analysis. Our study revealed that fellows considered the ePortfolio acceptable and accessible. Fellows reflected on aspects relevant to postgraduate training and future practice and documented adherence to competencies. However, fellows expressed resentment about the self-reflection component, which interfered with the overall acceptance of the ePortfolio. Although ePortfolios can be powerful and reflective tools for competency assessment, care must be taken in their implementation.     

What Did It Take to Scale Up and Sustain Udaan,a School-Based Adolescent Education Program in Jharkhand,India?

Since 2006, Udaan—a school-based adolescent education program in Jharkhand, India—was the only at-scale state-run program in the country. To determine factors that contributed to Udaan's scale-up and longevity, this study drew information from programmatic reports and interviews with the Centre for Catalyzing Change staff. Key factors for Udaan's success included an enabling policy environment, a willing government that supported and operationalized the program, a knowledgeable and committed NGO partner, sustained funding, and a commitment to constant improvement through evaluation. Udaan provides an example of a well-designed, implemented, and evaluated school-based adolescent health program that has been operating at scale over a sustained period. Other programs in India and elsewhere can benefit from learning from Udaan's experience.     

Investigating the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on Croatian business

Technological innovation plays a critical role in economic growth. The most advanced and new technologies are created by leading firms in developed countries. Global expansion, strategic outsourcing or off-shoring in leading companies has been growing to enrich their competitive advantage, while technology transfer of leading firms has been of more interest to emerging or developing countries for catching up and following the trajectory of economic growth proved in developed countries. Among various channels to acquire new technologies from leading firms, foreign direct investments (FDI) is one of the most effective channels through which technology can be transferred to subsidiaries in emerging markets. However, empirical study on the roles of technology transfer and the feedback loop from FDI remains still scarce. Thus, the purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of FDI on businesses in partial or complete foreign ownership, with a special emphasis on technology transfer, and to assess the impact of foreign companies on domestic firm performance through technology transfer from foreign companies. This paper aims at investigating the investment climate for foreign investments and intensifying technology transfers and innovations in the Croatian economy. 145 firms responded to the survey we conducted for foreign investment enterprises in Croatia. Structural equation model is employed to examine the hypotheses with respect to effects of FDI on innovation activities of domestic Croatian firms. This study identified critical factors affecting technology innovation to Croatian firms. The results provide empirical evidence that the innovation activities in subsidiaries have a positive influence toward technology transfer from multinational corporations.     

An Analysis of College Choice Information Provided on Graduate Program Websites: Implications for Improving Applicant Diversity in Educational Measurement

There has long been a concern about the lack of representation of ethnic minorities in the field of educational measurement. As previous research has shown that graduate programs primarily rely on their websites for recruiting efforts, the objective of this study was to conduct a content analysis of all U.S. educational measurement program websites to evaluate the availability of college choice information found to be useful for underrepresented ethnic minority applicants. In terms of program climate, results revealed that less than 10% of programs directly encouraged ethnic minorities to apply or included an antidiscrimination statement with regard to application review on their websites. Moreover, only a few program websites indicated the availability of flexible programming—previously found to be important for underrepresented ethnic minority students—such as part‐time options (16%), evening courses (10%), and online course/program availability (8%). Recommendations for how measurement programs can improve their websites to include desirable college choice information for underrepresented ethnic minority applicants are discussed.     

Bazon Brock's Visitors’ School on Documenta in Kassel: Training for Reception of Contemporary Art

This article analyses the problem of reception and interpretation of contemporary art exhibition in the context of Besucherschule (Visitors’ School) invented by Bazon Brock: German philosopher, art historian and a follower of Theodor Adorno. He implemented this practice for the first time on documenta 4 in Kassel (1968) and organised such schools of reception until documenta 9 (1992). The aim of the Visitors’ School was to explain works of contemporary art on display to the public. Brock understood this process as ‘mediation’ in aesthetic education, arguing that dependence on theory was no less problematic for contemporary art perception than the lack of traditional art form. The main symbolic task of art – ‘claim for reality’, was demonstrated by Brock in two ideas: ‘new image‐war’ and ‘speaking image’.