Age and Socialization Effects on the Development of Social Comparison Motives and Normative Ability Assessment in Kibbutz and Urban Children

We hypothesized that tendencies to explain interest in peers' work in terms of mastery-promotion or of relative ability assessment is related both to the development of the normative conception of ability and to educational emphases on cooperative or competitive learning goals. Study 1 tapped acquisition of the normative conception, normative self-assessment, and reasons for looking at others' work among 208 kibbutz and urban Israeli subjects at ages 4–8. Results confirmed that acquisition of normative understandings was associated with a shift from mastery to ability explanations in urban, but not kibbutz, children. Study 2 revealed similar differences in the frequency of mastery versus ability assessment reasons among 48 kibbutz and urban third-grade children asked to explain the videotaped glances of an unfamiliar child. Thus, cooperative learning settings seem to maintain interest in using peers to promote mastery, even after acquisition of the normative conception.     

A Systematic Literature Review of Funding for Higher Education Institutions in Developed Countries

Resource allocation and funding in higher education is crucial to the success of reform and transformation of our higher education system. With a view to identifying trends and best practices in the area, utilizing a method of systematic literature review, we have critically reviewed relevant theories and practices from developed counties that are covered in the scholarly literature published in English in the past 10 years. Our review has revealed: (1) Several universal trends have exerted a decisive impact on resource allocation in higher education, for example, funding reduction and tuition fee increases, performancebased funding, privatization, corporatization, and internationalization; (2) Several theories underpin key research in the area, for example, new institutional economics, resource dependence theory, and political economy; (3) Several controversial issues have made their way into public debate, for example, higher education as a public good or private good, academic capitalism, educational equity, and the role of econometrics.