Überzeugungen vom Englischlernen

Der Beitrag fragt, ob das Konzept der überzeugungen für die sprachen-bzw. englischdidaktische Forschung von Nutzen sein kann. Dazu wird zun?chst kurz die Diskussion der epistemologischen überzeugungen von Schülerinnen und Schülern in der dritten TIMS-Studie vorgestellt. Danach werden einige Ergebnisse aus der angloamerikanischen und deutschsprachigen Forschungsliteratur zu überzeugungen vom Sprachenlernen referiert. Am Beispiel eines empirischen Forschungsprojektes werden ansatzweise überzeugungen zweier Englischlehrender zum Grammatiklernen analysiert. Im Ergebnis vertritt der Autor die These, dass die Erforschung der überzeugungen von Lehrenden und Lernenden im Kontext von Schule ein notwendiges und deshalb zu intensivierendes, wenngleich nicht hinreichendes Element der Entwicklung von fremdsprachlichem Unterricht ist.     

Conscientiousness,achievement striving,and intelligence as performance predictors in a sample of German psychology students: Always a linear relationship?

Studies on the interface between cognitive ability (intelligence) and personality in the prediction of academic performance have yielded mixed results so far. Especially an interaction between conscientiousness (and its facet achievement striving) and intelligence has been investigated. The hypothesis is that conscientiousness enhances the impact of intelligence on performance. Based on findings supporting the idea of a non-linear relationship between conscientiousness and performance the present study aimed at a clarification of the mixed results. Given such a non-linear relationship, studies investigating a possible moderating effect should pay attention to the performance level. A sample of N = 271 students completed a conscientiousness and an intelligence measure. Moderated regression analyses revealed a moderation for conscientiousness but not its facet achievement striving in the total sample. However, splitting the sample into a low and a high performer group revealed an enhancing effect of achievement striving for low performers and a buffering effect for high performer. Practical as well as theoretical implications are discussed.     

Evolution?rer Test von Realzeitsystemen

Zusammenfassung.   Die Entwicklung von Realzeitsystemen ist eine wesentliche Aufgabe im industriellen Umfeld. Der dynamische Test ist die wichtigste analytische Qualit?tssicherungsmethode für Realzeitsysteme. Der dynamische Test ist das einzige Verfahren, mit dem das Laufzeitverhalten der Systeme in der tats?chlichen Einsatzumgebung überprüft werden kann. Bestehende Testmethoden konzentrieren sich weitgehend auf den Test des funktionalen Verhaltens von Systemen. Sie bieten keine besondere Unterstützung für den Test des zeitlichen Verhaltens. Für die Korrektheit von Realzeitsystemen sind jedoch beide Aspekte gleicherma?en wichtig. Folglich müssen die bestehenden Methoden um neue Ans?tze erg?nzt werden, die auf die Prüfung des zeitlichen Verhaltens spezialisiert sind. Ein Fehler im Zeitverhalten von Realzeit-Systemen liegt dann vor, wenn es zul?ssige Eingabesituationen gibt, für die das System nicht in der Lage ist, die spezifizierten zeitlichen Anforderungen zu erfüllen. In den meisten F?llen ist dies darauf zurückzuführen, da?das System eine Ausgabe zu früh macht oder da?die Berechnung einer Ausgabe zu lange dauert und diese daher zu sp?t erfolgt. Aufgabe des Testers ist es folglich, die Eingabesituationen mit den l?ngsten und kürzesten Ausführungszeiten zu finden, um zu überprüfen, ob die für das System spezifizierten Zeitschranken verletzt werden. Wird die Suche nach entsprechenden Eingabesituationen als Optimierungsproblem interpretiert, dann k?nnen evolution?re Algorithmen verwendet werden, um die Eingaben mit den l?ngsten und kürzesten Ausführungszeiten automatisch zu suchen. Die zu optimierende Zielfunktion entspricht hierbei den gemessenen Ausführungszeiten, die generierten Individuen repr?sentieren Testdaten. Die Verwendung evolution?rer Algorithmen für den Test nennen wir evolution?ren Test. Zum Vergleich des evolution?ren Tests mit anderen Testmethoden wurden in dieser Arbeit mehrere Experimente durchgeführt. In allen Experimenten erreicht der evolution?re Test l?ngere bzw. kürzere Ausführungszeiten als durch Zufallstests oder systematische Tests gefunden werden. Der evolution?re Test erscheint daher als gut geeignet für die Prüfung der zeitlichen Korrektheit von Realzeitsystemen. Die Kombination des evolution?ren Tests mit systematischen Tests kann die Testqualit?t weiter verbessern und wird in diesem Papier als Teststrategie für Realzeitsysteme empfohlen. Eingegangen am 14. Dezember 1999 / Angenommen am 30. Mai 2000     

Aspektorientierte Programmiertechniken im Unit-Testen

Der Artikel untersucht, wie Probleme, die speziell beim Unit-Testen objektorientierter Programme auftreten, mit Hilfe des Paradigmas aspektorientierte Programmierung gel?st werden k?nnen. Die Untersuchung stellt Schritt für Schritt die einzelnen Teilprobleme vor, f"uhrt konventionelle L?sungen auf, zeigt aspektorientierte Alternativen für die gestellten Probleme und erl"autert anhand von Code-Beispielen ihre Implementierung in der Sprache AspectJ. Die Untersuchung begleitend wird das Testframework FlexTest vorgestellt, das die praktische Umsetzbarkeit der vorgestellten Ideen demonstriert. The article examines whether problems that occur specifically during unit testing of object-oriented programs can be solved using the aspect-oriented programming paradigm. It presents the various subproblems step by step, shows conventional solutions, describes aspect-oriented solutions to the problems in a general and language-independent manner, and concludes by looking at the aspect-oriented implementation in the language AspectJ. Parallel to this, we present the test framework FlexTest, which demonstrates the practical implementability of our ideas.

CR Subject Classification D.2.5     

Is underestimation less detrimental than overestimation? The impact of experts’ beliefs about a layperson’s knowledge on learning and question asking

Although prior research has shown that experts tend to overestimate or underestimate what laypersons actually know, little is known about the specific consequences of biased estimations for communication. To investigate the impact of biased estimations of a layperson’s knowledge on the effectiveness of experts’ explanations, we conducted a web-based dialog experiment with 45 pairs of experts and laypersons. We manipulated the experts’ mental model of the layperson by presenting them either valid information about the layperson’s knowledge or information that was biased towards overestimation or underestimation. Results showed that the experts adopted the biased estimations and adapted their explanations accordingly. Consequently, the laypersons’ learning from the experts’ explanations was impaired when the experts overestimated or underestimated the layperson’s knowledge. In addition, laypersons whose knowledge was overestimated more often generated questions that reflected comprehension problems. Laypersons whose knowledge was underestimated asked mainly for additional information previously not addressed in the explanations. The results suggest that underestimating a learner during the instructional dialog is as detrimental to learning as is the overestimation of a learner’s knowledge. Thus, the provision of effective explanations presupposes an accurate mental model of the learner’s knowledge prerequisites.     

Situating teachers’ developmental engineering experiences in an inquiry-based,laboratory learning environment

Many secondary math and science teachers don’t understand the nature and application of engineering adequately to transfer that understanding to their students. Research is needed that investigates and illuminates the process and characteristics of development that addresses this gap. This mixed-method study examines the developmental experiences of 16 public math and science teachers in a yearlong engineering experience. Teachers partnered with university engineering professor-mentors for six weeks on campus followed by ongoing support for transfer to their secondary classes (grades 9–12). Teachers gained engineering knowledge and skills, and an understanding of engineering’s diversity and interdisciplinary nature, plus integrative applied strategies for math and science instruction. They developed productive perceptions (of value, utility, benefits, feasibility and fit) of engineering for their grade 9–12 students, along with efficacy and intent to use what they had learned. Teachers identified positive, profound shifts in their perceptions of engineering and engineers. All teachers integrated engineering principles into their classrooms, but the process was more challenging for math teachers than for science teachers. This developmental experience may help bridge gaps of school-to-life and disciplinary boundaries that separate formal educational environments from authentic life experience.     

Understanding access to higher education amongst humanitarian migrants: an analysis of Australian longitudinal survey data

Higher Education - Humanitarian migrants are amongst the most marginalised population groups in countries within the Global North, including Australia. An important channel for these migrants to...     

Using a Diagnosis-Based Approach to Individualize Instructional Explanations in Computer-Mediated Communication

To maximize the effectiveness of instructional explanations, they should be tailored to an individual learner. However, instructors are often not able to collect diagnostically relevant information about a learner to individualize their explanations. This is particularly true in computer-mediated settings where it is more difficult to thoroughly assess a learner’s understanding. We present an approach that provides instructors in asynchronous and text-based computer-mediated communication settings with information about a learner’s understanding that has sufficient diagnostic power to enable them to generate learner-tailored explanations. A series of experiments testing this approach suggest several conclusions. First, instructors need information about a learner to individualize explanations. Second, instructors are able to design explanations that are specifically adapted to a learner’s individual understanding. Third, learner-tailored explanations facilitate the processing of new information and make instructional communication more efficient. Fourth, learner-tailored explanations enhance a deep understanding of the information processed and make instructional communication more effective.     

A novel technology-industry concordance table based on linked inventor-establishment data

Mapping technologies into industries is frequently required in empirical innovation studies, but many concordances only provide coarse mappings. We develop a novel concordance between industries and technologies making use of linked inventor-employee data for a large sample of German patents filed at the European Patent Office between 1999 and 2011. Inventors listed on these patents are matched and disambiguated with German social security records. Employment data recorded in this database include detailed industry codes describing the industrial activities of the inventors’ establishments. These linked microdata allow us to identify the precise industrial origin of inventions, combine them with technology classifications from the inventors’ patents and to generate novel concordance tables. We evaluate our approach by comparing the concordances with existing work. Moreover, in an empirical application, we find that patent based indicators represent valid proxies for the innovation performance of industries and thus help to measure innovation in the absence of other survey based indicators. Service sector innovation activities, however, appear to be barely represented by the patenting activities of inventors and establishments.