Testing the predictive power of executive functions,motivation, and input on second language vocabulary acquisition: a prospective study

European Journal of Psychology of Education - This longitudinal study assessed the relative importance of second language exposure, motivational and attitudinal factors, and executive functions in...     

Incorporating technical risk in compound real option models to value a pharmaceutical R&D licensing opportunity

The valuation of multi-staged pharmaceutical R&D can be interpreted as a chain of real options. In valuing these compound option models, a crucial problem is how to deal with the different types of risk. Previous models, such as Cassimon et al. (2004), offer a closed-form solution for the valuation of a new drug development using a generalized n-fold compound option model, but implicitly bundle both commercial and technical risk in one risk measure. We extend this model by explicitly incorporating technical risk, while still preserving the closed-form solution of the model. As such, this extended model is better suited to handle real-life valuation cases in the pharmaceutical industry. We document the theoretical model with a real-life project of a major pharmaceutical multinational.     

The level of awareness and understanding of copyright laws and policies among academic librarians in Ghana

Awareness and understanding of copyright laws are critical in the proper administration of copyright in academic libraries. Data from 38 library staff and 4 head librarians was used in a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach to assess the level of awareness and understanding of copyright laws among library staff with regards to balancing user rights with rightsholder rights in academic libraries in Ghana. The data was collected using questionnaires and qualitative interviews. Though awareness of all the copyright laws, which was not influenced by the educational status of staff was high, the level of understanding was lower. Work experience, schedule of work and current position of staff significantly influenced the level of understanding. The generally moderate level of understanding of copyright laws for library staff; particularly for fair use and creative commons licensing, is a worrying development for copyright administration in academic libraries in Ghana.     

From Ends to Causes (and Back Again) by Metaphor: The Paradox of Natural Selection

Natural selection is one of the most famous metaphors in the history of science. Charles Darwin used the metaphor and the underlying analogy to frame his ideas about evolution and its main driving mechanism into a full-fledged theory. Because the metaphor turned out to be such a powerful epistemic tool, Darwin naturally assumed that he could also employ it as an educational tool to inform his contemporaries about his findings. Moreover, by using the metaphor Darwin was able to bring his theory in accordance with both the dominant philosophy of science in his time and the respected tradition of natural theology. However, as he introduced his theory of evolution by natural selection in On the origin of species in 1859, the metaphor also turned out to have a serious downside. Because of its intentional overtones, his contemporaries systematically misunderstood his metaphor not as a natural mechanism causing evolution to occur but as an agent who works towards particular ends. The difference in success between natural selection as an epistemic tool and its failure as an educational tool is labelled as a paradox. We explain the paradox from a cognitive perspective and discuss the implications for teaching evolution.     

Interpreting histograms. As easy as it seems?

Histograms are widely used, but recent studies have shown that they are not as easy to interpret as it might seem. In this article, we report on three studies on the interpretation of histograms in which we investigated, namely, (1) whether the misinterpretation by university students can be considered to be the result of heuristic reasoning, (2) whether we could influence performance by stimulating or hindering the analytic processing of histograms, and (3) whether experts still show signs of this heuristic misinterpretation. We found that both university students and experts show signs of incorrect heuristic reasoning when comparing the mean of two data sets presented by histograms. Stimulating or hindering analytic processing did not affect performance. These indications of heuristic reasoning and the impossibility to affect this analytic processing suggest that the incorrect heuristic misinterpretation of histograms is very persistent. Implications for theory and methodology, scientific and educational practice are discussed.     

Is the cure worse than the disease? A longitudinal study on the effect of grade retention in secondary education on achievement and academic self-concept

Holding students back when they do not meet a specific attainment level is common practice in a lot of countries. However, this practice is not without controversy and recent studies point at the negative effects of grade retention, especially in the long-term. The majority of these studies focused on grade retention in primary education. In our study, we focused on the effect of grade retention in Grade 8 on language achievement and academic self-concept. We matched students who were and were not retained based on their propensity to be retained and compared both groups using a growth curve analysis. The basic treatment “grade retention vs. promotion” was extended with the certificate these students received at the end of Grade 8. With this growth curve analysis, we were able to draw conclusions on the effect in the short-term, as well as in the long-term. In the short-term (i.e. the year of retention), it seems that grade retention had no negative effect on language achievement in the short-term, and even a positive effect on academic self-concept in the year of retention. The effects became more negative when we considered effects in the long-term. Especially for language achievement, we found a strong decline in the achievement of grade retainees. We found no negative effect of grade retention on academic self-concept. We can conclude that grade retention has a negative effect on the achievement of retained students in the long run, but has no negative effect on academic self-concept. When we take into account the certificate they received, it seems that following the teacher’s advice to change track is a better decision than repeating the grade in the same track.