Recruitment of rural teachers in developing countries: an economic analysis

Monetary and non-monetary incentives for rural teacher recruitment are a prominent feature of developing-country education systems. Despite the widespread use of incentives, there is little theoretical or empirical evidence on their effectiveness. This paper interprets incentive policies within the framework of the economic theory of compensating differentials. The discussion clarifies the implicit assumptions of incentive policies and aids in organizing further empirical work on their effectiveness. Existing evidence on compensating differentials, mainly in the United States, shows that teachers tend to trade off monetary wages against non-monetary aspects of their jobs, such as geographic location and class size.     

The effectiveness of multigrade schools in Colombia

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the Colombian New School (Escuela Nueva) program in raising student achievement in Spanish and mathematics. Typical program strategies include multigrade instruction, flexible student promotion, and community involvement. The paper finds that New Schools are better endowed with inputs like textbooks and place greater emphasis on active learning than traditional rural schools. Nevertheless, many New Schools have not implemented all the reforms. New Schools are found to have positive and statistically significant effects on Spanish and mathematics achievement in third grade and Spanish in fifth grade. Findings replicate previous evaluations.     

Constraints to Implementing Educational Innovations: The Case of Multigrade Schools

Studies suggest that multigrade schools, i.e. those with classes that are mixed in age and ability, can be a cost-effective means of raising student achievement and expanding access to education in poor countries. Development institutions often recommend them for countries struggling to raise educational quality and coverage in rural areas. However, the literature advocating the adoption of multigrade schools avoids discussing the potential difficulties in implementing the system. This paper analyses the conditons under which implementation might be successful, focusing on the oft-cited case of the Colombian Escuela Nuela programme. The authors conclude that capacity-building through in-service training is an important determinant of the way teachers approach their task. However, a great deal of variance in teacher practices is left unexplained. The article suggests that teacher will (that is, motivation and commitment) might explain much of the remaining variation in the adoption of the new pedagogies. The authors explore several conditions under which teacher will could be lacking.     

On Replication in Communication Science

Replications are an important part of the research process because they allow for greater confidence in the findings of communication research. However, engaging in replications is often undervalued, replication studies can be difficult to publish, and thus it is difficult for individual scholars to devote their resources toward replication. This essay outlines the importance of replications for communication science and provides a framework for this special issue on replications. The authors also issue a call for communication scholars to consider future projects and structural changes that would incentivize future replication studies.     

The politics of rural school reform: Escuela Nueva in Colombia

This article explores the history and politics of rural school reform in Colombia, focusing on the Escuela Nueva programme. In particular, it assesses the motivations of the Colombian State in promoting a comprehensive reform of its rural schools. We argue that Colombia's unique political context was, in large part, responsible for its novel approach to school reform. As the political context shifted, however, so to did the State's posture to rural schooling. We track the Escuela Nueva programme through three phases (grassroots, formalized and decoupled) to demonstrate how social actors, their interests at a specific point in time, and the distribution of power among them, are crucial elements for understanding the motivation and outcomes of social policy making. In other words, this research portrays education reform as a dynamic process that is continuously shaped and reshaped as political actors and institutions compete for influence and scarce resources in a variable social arena.     

Get sleep or get stumped: sleep behaviour in elite South African cricket players during competition

ABSTRACT

Despite evidence supporting the positive affect sleep has on sport performance, there is limited application of sleep research in cricket. This study investigated the sleep behaviours of 26 elite South African cricket players (28.6 ± 4.0 years) during home and away competition. Players completed an altered version of the Core Consensus Sleep Diary every morning post-travel, pre-match and post-match. Linear mixed model regression was used to compare differences in sleep between time-periods, venues and formats. Spearman’s correlations (r_s) assessed the relationship of match performance and sleep. Post-match total sleep time (06:31 ± 01:09) was significantly (p < 0.05) shorter compared to post-travel (07:53 ± 01:07; g = 1.19) and pre-match (08:43 ± 01:03; g = 1.98). Post-travel sleep onset latency and sleep efficiency were significantly shorter (?20; g = 1.35) and higher (+10.4%; g = 0.74) at home than away respectively. Longer sleep onset latencies and shorter total sleep times were significantly associated with poorer One-Day International (r_s = ?0.57) and Test (r_s = 0.59) batting performances respectively. The poor post-match sleep behaviour, and the sleep and performance correlations, provide motive for future interventions to focus on recovery and the use of sleep monitoring as a competitive advantage.     

Freshmen Engagement Through Communication: Predicting Friendship Formation Strategies and Perceived Availability of Network Resources From Communication Skills

First-time freshmen completed communication skills questionnaires at the beginning of a fall semester. Approximately 6 weeks later they completed another questionnaire regarding friendship formation strategies and the perceived availability of resources from their new social network. Results suggest that different profiles of communication skills predicted how much freshmen reported using group involvement, online social networking, disclosure, responsiveness, and invitations as friendship formation strategies. Communication skills and friendship formation strategies were also associated with the perceived availability of social, personal, and instrumental resources. Implications for freshmen's social integration into a new university environment are discussed.