The “Developing” Achievement Gap: Colombian Voucher Reform

The achievement gap in many developing countries is defined in terms of rich/poor and public/private. The prevailing explanation for the “developing” achievement gap is an underfunded, inefficient, and/or inadequately supplied public school sector. Via an analysis of a Colombian voucher experiment, this article examines the extent to which income-contingent vouchers can narrow the achievement gap and provide a cost-effective method for increasing secondary school enrollments. Despite structural and implementation flaws, which diminish the program's impact on achievement and enrollments, its successes strengthen the argument that implementing an income-contingent voucher program can help narrow the achievement gap in developing countries. To cost-effectively increase enrollments, however, significant modifications and expansions to the program would be necessary—as explained in the conclusion of this article.     

Understanding the concept of the entrepreneurial university from the perspective of higher education models

Over the last few decades, globalization and ever-increasing demands of the knowledge-based economy have caused higher education in most countries around the world to undergo significant transformation. Notwithstanding the dramatic changes in higher education, it is clearly noticed that the influence of the European higher education models is still present despite the fact that the American model has then become dominant on higher education in Europe or even worldwide. The changes have been seen in the evolutionary roles of universities, which share the common trend from traditional missions of teaching and research to the third mission for economic development. Despite various viewpoints about the third mission, the common one concerns the entrepreneurial role of university for socio-economic development, underlying the concept of entrepreneurial university in which the collaboration between university and external stakeholders is emphasized. This paper is aimed to present a review of the taxonomy of the three European higher education models, namely the Humboldtian, Napoleonic, and Anglo-Saxon model, which is followed by a discussion on the emergence of the Anglo-American model of higher education. The paper then presents the third mission in relation to the roles of a university in developed countries, which is followed by the elaboration on the transformation from mode 1 to mode 2 in knowledge production, and a pathway toward entrepreneurial universities.     

Generalized conditioned flavor aversions: Effects of toxicosis training with one flavor on the preference for different novel flavors

In two experiments, experimental rats were trained to have strong aversions to one of 10 novel-flavored solutions through contingent lithium injections; control rats were injected with lithium in the absence of prior consumption. Each animal was then tested with each of the 10 solutions, and the preferences of the experimental rats and the control rats were compared. A generalization gradient of the aversion to each conditioned aversive flavor was obtained for each test flavor.     

Investigating the sets of values that community members hold toward local nature centers

While nature center’s missions often point to connecting people to nature in various ways, their potential to provide a broader array of services to their communities remains largely unexplored. To better understand the values local community members hold for nature centers, we conducted survey research around 16 centers in the United States. Exploratory factor analysis identified four underlying values: environmental connection, leisure provision, community resilience, and civic engagement. Our limited sample of community respondents felt these values to be important and well-provided by local centers, suggesting centers may play broader roles in communities than inferred from their mission statements. The identification of these distinct value sets provides centers with food for thought regarding not only the services they provide, but also how they might communicate their roles to various constituencies in their communities. The values also provide clear conceptual categories for future research on the values of diverse community institutions.     

A Teacher’s Mediation of a Thinking-Aloud Discussion in a 6th Grade Mathematics Classroom

This article presents a Vygotsky-inspired analysis of how a teacher mediated a “thinking aloud” whole-group discussion in a 6th grade mathematics classroom. This discussion centered on finding patterns in a triangular array of consecutive numbers as a phase towards building recursive and direct algebraic formulas. By a “thinking aloud” discussion we mean a conversation wherein students exchange and further develop ideas-in-the-making with their peers under the teacher’s guidance. Drawing upon Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics (SFL), we treated the selected discussion as a text. We then analyzed how the teacher mediated the conjoined making of this text so that it served as an interpersonal gateway for students to practice searching for patterns and signifying these patterns in propositional form. This analysis was guided by the following questions: How did the discussion as a text-in-the-making mean what it did? What was the role of the teacher in the conjoined making of this text? Our study illustrates the power of SFL for capturing the inner grammar of instructional conversations thus illuminating the complexities and subtleties of the teacher’s role in mediating semiotic mediation in mathematics classrooms.     

Action learning guided by Tao for lifelong learning

Information Technology brings about rapid changes in working environment, quickly rendering skills and knowledge gained in formal learning institutions obsolete. Even as they prepare students for their first career, institutions also need to equip students with skills necessary for lifelong learning. The Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore has accordingly structured its curricula into Academic Studies and General Studies where the former focuses on core subjects (broad based knowledge-specific studies), and the latter on general knowledge (multi-disciplines catering to various interests for lifelong benefits). A 12-week course, ‘Introduction to Tao for Effective Action Learning’ which focuses on learning processes was developed and has been taught by the author, for undergraduates at NTU since July 2001. The course materials were derived from the author's Ph.D. thesis ‘The Tao of Action Learning’ (Sam, 2000). This paper explains the nature of the action learning programme at NTU and includes one account from participant students.     

Flavor aversions and deprivation state

In the first four experiments, it was found that aversions to saccharin solution produced by contingent poisoning were similar regardless of whether the rats had been trained under the test deprivation or under a different deprivation; the two deprivation states used were thirst and satiety. In Experiment 5, rats were poisoned after drinking grape juice while hungry or poisoned after drinking milk while thirsty, but they were not poisoned after grape-thirst or milk-hunger combinations. In abstract terms, poisoning occurred after AX and BY stimulus combinations, but did not occur after AY and BX combinations. There was some learning under these discrimination conditions.     

What difference do role models make? Investigating outcomes at a residential environmental education center

Role models may be essential in helping students develop environmental literacy and characteristics associated with positive youth development (PYD). We examine the identities of middle school students’ self-reported role models before, immediately after, and three months following an immersive 5-day residential environmental education (EE) experience that targets environmental responsibility, character development and leadership, and attitudes toward school as programmatic outcomes. We explore whether students who identified different types of role models score differently on these factors. Students who identified parents, teachers, and pastors as role models scored higher on each of these outcomes. Moreover, who students identified as role models changed significantly after the EE program. We discuss the potential influence of the program on role model development and implications for EE and PYD programs.     

为什么引入COO

你可能不会对这样的事情很吃惊:一位猎头与他人合著了一本书,详细探讨了企业应该着手创造COO(首席运营官)这一新角色的方法和原因.你也许会说,别管组织结构,先算算这么做的成本吧.……