The roles of perceived parental expectation and criticism in adolescents’ multidimensional perfectionism and achievement goals

Perfectionism consists of personal predispositions and attitudes toward performance. Although there is some disagreement in the field regarding how to best define and measure perfectionism, most studies have supported a distinction between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism. The current study examines a model in which students’ perceptions of parents’ standards and criticism are proposed as antecedents of multidimensional perfectionism, which in turn are hypothesised to be associated with types of academic achievement goal orientations. The sample consisted of 256 high school students who completed questionnaires assessing adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism, perceptions of their parents and personal achievement goals. Structural equation modelling supported the hypotheses suggesting that high parental standards are positively associated with the adaptive perfectionist characteristic of self-organised perception, which in turn are associated with a mastery goal orientation. Parental criticism predicted the maladaptive perfectionist characteristic of concern over mistakes, which in turn was found associated with a performance-avoidance goal orientation.     

Stress prevention through a time management training intervention: an experimental study

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a short-term time management training programme on perceived control of time and perceived stress. The sample of 177 freshmen was randomly assigned to a time management training (n?=?89) and an active control group (CG) (n?=?88). We expected that an increase in external demands during the first weeks of the semester would lead to more perceived stress in the CG, but not in the time management training group, due to the time management intervention. As hypothesised, perceived stress increased in the CG, but not in the time management training group. Furthermore, perceived control of time increased in the time management training group but remained unchanged in the CG. Even a rather short intervention of 2?h can protect freshmen from an increase in perceived stress at the beginning of the semester.     

Royalties for Artists versus Royalties for Authors and Composers

Legislation creating or reinforcing resale royalties for visual artists retains substantial political popularity – particularly in the European Union – despite the often skeptical attitude toward those rights in the economics literature. In this essay, we probe more deeply the affirmative arguments that can be made for a resale royalty right, in either a mandatory or a discretionary form. We also compare the rationale for visual artists' resale royalties with the potential rationales for the now-well-established systems of royalty rights for authors and composers. This comparison has particular interest both because some of the principal arguments made against visual artists' resale royalties also apply to authors' royalties, and because the economic rationale for compensating authors with royalties has itself not been well explored. We also discuss briefly the related subject of display rights for visual artists. We conclude with some general implications for policy.     

Integrating Technology in Teaching and Teacher Education: Implications for Policy and Curriculum Reform

This paper discusses technology integration in teaching and teacher education. Emphasis is placed on policy and curriculum reform as they relate to the use of information technologies for teacher education. Particular reference is made to the situation in Cyprus public schools. It is argued that for successful technology integration, there needs to be a shift in pedagogical approaches and reform of teacher education programmes. Concluding, suggestions are provided on how information technologies can best be integrated in pre-service teacher education and in-service teacher professional development. Intégration des technologies dans l’enseignement et la formation des enseignants : quelles implications

politiques, quel impact sur la réforme curriculaire? Dans cet article nous analyserons comment s'intègrent les technologies dans l'enseignement et la formation des enseignants et mettrons l'accent sur les conséquences de cette intégration sur les aspects politiques et sur la réforme des curricula avec une attention particulière À la situation des écoles publiques chypriotes. Nous défendons l'idée que l'intégration des TIC doit s'accompagner d'un changement profond dans nos faÇons d'enseigner et de concevoir les programmes de formation des enseignants. Enfin, le texte suggère quelques idées concernant l'intégration des TIC dans la formation initiale et continue des enseignants. Integration von Technologie im Unterricht und in der Lehrerausbildung : Auswirkung auf die Schulpolitik

und die Lehrplanreform. In diesem Artikel behandeln wir die Integration von neuen Technologien im Unterricht und in der Lehrerausbildung, und heben deren Auswirkungen auf die Schulpolitik und die Lehrplanreform hervor. Wir nehmen insbesondere Bezug auf die Situation der öffentlichen Schulen auf Zypern. Eine signifikante Aenderung unserer pädagogischen Denkweise und eine Reform der Lehrerausbildung ist Voraussetzung für die erfolgreiche Integration der neuen Technologien. Abschliessend möchten wir Vorschläge vorbringen, wie Informationstechnologien in der Ausbildung und Fortbildung von Lehrkräften am besten integriert werden können.     

Investigating the attitudes of head teachers of Cypriot primary schools towards inclusion

This paper reports the results of a study that has been carried out for the first time in Cyprus, with the aim of exploring the views of head teachers on inclusion. Data were collected by means of questionnaires and a focus group meeting; 185 head teachers participated in this study. The findings indicated that overall, head teachers held positive attitudes towards inclusion of children with disabilities. The relationship among the head teachers' background factors, such as sex, administration experience, contacts with people with disabilities, possession of postgraduate titles in special education and attitudes towards inclusion were reported. This study has brought out that head teachers held overall positive attitudes towards inclusion. The findings are meaningful to the understanding of the effects of inclusion and entail various implications to facilitate it.     

Cultural capital and intellectual ability as predictors of scholastic achievement: a study of Slovenian secondary school students

Cultural capital, originally a general sociological concept, has been transformed into a construct that is often applied in predicting scholastic attainment. Intellectual ability (IQ) has also been proven to be a strong, although basically psychological, predictor of educational attainment. However, these strands of research have hardly been contrasted in terms of their predictive power and in terms of their potential interaction. In the current study of Slovenian secondary school students, the results indicated that both constructs had statistically significant predictive power, both as to attainment and as to transition into type of secondary education. Results also indicated that: both constructs were fairly robust, as their predictive power remained statistically significant even after control variables were entered into the model; and they operated independently as results indicated no interaction between these constructs. The ‘return’ on cultural capital was greater for students whose parents had lower educational status.     

First adoption of consumer innovations: Exploring market failure and alleviating factors

Consumers innovate usually for non-commercial motives. They generally lack incentives to diffuse, and this is expected to hamper first adoption – even if consumer innovations are valuable to many other people. We confirm this market failure with survey data of 164 German consumer innovators. First adoption by others is unrelated with general use value, unless the innovator is highly willing to commercialize. Next, as classical diffusion theory does not explain when consumer innovations become available to others, we propose an individual-object-process (I-O-P) framework to study factors alleviating the market failure. The viability of the framework is explored by studying the moderating role of entrepreneurial experience (I), product newness (O) and community engagement during the innovation process (P). First adoption of generally valuable consumer innovations is enhanced when a community was involved. We also find tentative evidence for a moderating role of entrepreneurial experience and product newness.