A cross-cultural study of values of Germans and Americans

The Rokeach Value Survey was used as the instrument to study the values of German and American university students. The Survey was translated into German by the hack-translation method. It was administered to 199 students in Germany in May, 1982 and to 231 students in the United States in the fall. 1982. The results show the differences as well as the similarities between the two groups in their value orientations. The distinct differences between the two groups are: (1) the Germans are more competence oriented in the means they desire to attain their end-states of existence; however, their end-states of existence are society-oriented and interpersonal. (2) The Americans are morality oriented in the modes of conduct they desire to attain their end-states of existence: their end-slates of existence are more personal or self-centered and intrapersonal than those of the Germans. Thus, the means to the end, as well as the end, differ for both groups.     

ICT—the hopes and the reality

An analysis is made of the reasons for excessive optimism concerning the potential of ICT to enhance levels of pupil achievement. After a review of evidence concerning the potential of ICT, a small-scale survey is reported that shows continuing problems in the adoption of ICT by teachers. It is concluded that more research is needed to improve the expectations and effectiveness of ICT provision and utilisation.     

Processes of Early Childhood Interventions to Adult Well‐Being

This article describes the contributions of cognitive–scholastic advantage, family support behavior, and school quality and support as processes through which early childhood interventions promote well‐being. Evidence in support of these processes is from longitudinal cohort studies of the Child–Parent Centers and other preventive interventions beginning by age 4. Relatively large effects of participation have been documented for school readiness skills at age 5, parent involvement, K‐12 achievement, remedial education, educational attainment, and crime prevention. The three processes account for up to half of the program impacts on well‐being. They also help to explain the positive economic returns of many effective programs. The generalizability of these processes is supported by a sizable knowledge base, including a scale up of the Child–Parent Centers.     

Performance of student software development teams: the influence of personality and identifying as team members

One prominent approach in the exploration of the variations in project team performance has been to study two components of the aggregate personalities of the team members: conscientiousness and agreeableness. A second line of research, known as self-categorisation theory, argues that identifying as team members and the team's performance norms should substantially influence the team's performance. This paper explores the influence of both these perspectives in university software engineering project teams. Eighty students worked to complete a piece of software in small project teams during 2007 or 2008. To reduce limitations in statistical analysis, Monte Carlo simulation techniques were employed to extrapolate from the results of the original sample to a larger simulated sample (2043 cases, within 319 teams). The results emphasise the importance of taking into account personality (particularly conscientiousness), and both team identification and the team's norm of performance, in order to cultivate higher levels of performance in student software engineering project teams.     

Want to Improve Undergraduate Thesis Writing? Engage Students and Their Faculty Readers in Scientific Peer Review

One of the best opportunities that undergraduates have to learn to write like a scientist is to write a thesis after participating in faculty-mentored undergraduate research. But developing writing skills doesn't happen automatically, and there are significant challenges associated with offering writing courses and with individualized mentoring. We present a hybrid model in which students have the structural support of a course plus the personalized benefits of working one-on-one with faculty. To optimize these one-on-one interactions, the course uses BioTAP, the Biology Thesis Assessment Protocol, to structure engagement in scientific peer review. By assessing theses written by students who took this course and comparable students who did not, we found that our approach not only improved student writing but also helped faculty members across the department--not only those teaching the course--to work more effectively and efficiently with student writers. Students who enrolled in this course were more likely to earn highest honors than students who only worked one-on-one with faculty. Further, students in the course scored significantly better on all higher-order writing and critical-thinking skills assessed.