The impact of high school exit exams on graduation rates and achievement

The authors examined the short- and long-term effects of high school exit exams (HSEEs) on graduation rates and achievement using an interrupted time series approach. There is a positive overall effect of HSEE introduction for graduation rate trends, which is heterogeneous over time. HSEEs have a negative impact on graduation rates in the year of introduction and briefly after, which is short lived and becomes positive (but not statistically significant) over the long term. There is also a preintervention negative effect, suggesting that high schools prepare for the HSEE before introduction. There are no effects for achievement, possibly due to the lack of meaningful cross-state achievement data. The findings are robust to the inclusion of states that do not have HSEEs as a control group and also robust to controlling for No Child Left Behind introduction.     

Pathways from maternal depressive symptoms to children’s academic performance in adolescence: A 13-year prospective-longitudinal study

The pathways through which exposure to maternal depressive symptoms in early childhood are linked to academic performance during adolescence are poorly understood. This study tested pathways from maternal depressive symptoms (age 2–5) to adolescent academic performance (age 15) through cumulative parenting risk (age 7) and subsequent child functioning (age 10), using multi-informant data from a prospective longitudinal community study spanning 13 years (N = 389, 47% male, 68% White). Structural equation models testing indirect effects revealed small associations between maternal depressive symptoms and increased cumulative parenting risk and poorer child functioning, and, via these pathways, with poorer academic performance. Thus, childhood exposure to maternal depressive symptoms may be associated with pathways of risk that could limit children's educational opportunities.     

The relational antecedents of project-entrepreneurship: Network centrality, team composition and project performance

The relational antecedents of project-based enterprises have not yet received systematic investigation. These ventures are typically created by individual freelancers who are usually embedded in networks of collaborative relationships that convey the information and resources required to carry out new projects. Using a relational perspective of entrepreneurial discovery and team composition, we analyze the performance determinants of project-entrepreneurs, namely the individuals who are responsible for launching and carrying out those projects. We argue that project-entrepreneurs’ performance is related to their degree of centrality within the social network, and their familiarity with the selected project-team as captured by the distribution of ties among team members. We test our hypotheses within the Hollywood Film Industry over the period 1992–2003. The findings point to the existence of diminishing returns to centrality and performance benefits from assembling teams that combine old-timers and newcomers. The theoretical contributions and implications of the study are discussed.     

Identifying motivators and barriers to older community-dwelling people participating in resistance training: A cross-sectional study

Participation rates of older people in resistance training (RT) are low despite increasing research showing many health benefits. To increase the number of older people participating in RT it is important to know what would motivate people to become involved, what motivates those who participate to continue, and the factors preventing many older people from commencing participation. To investigate these issues, a questionnaire was mailed to three groups of older people: (1) those receiving home care services, (2) members of a peak non-government seniors’ organisation and (3) those participating in a specific gym-based RT programme. In total, 1327 questionnaires were returned (response rate = 42.5%). To feel good physically and mentally were the main reasons motivating participation among all three groups, and falls prevention was identified as an important motivator for the home care respondents. Pain, injury and illness were the main barriers to participating, or continuing to participate. However, medical advice was a factor influencing participation commencement. The results suggest organisations providing RT programmes for older people should tailor the promotion and delivery of programmes to address key motivators and barriers specific to each group to increase the proportion of older people initiating and continuing to engage in RT.     

On Bullshit

A number of leading academicians and practicing professionals in the fields of instructional and human performance technology (HPT) have observed over recent years a disturbing pattern of ideas and propositions being advocated by academics and practitioners alike that do not always ring true. At best some of these propositions are misleading, and at worst they are disingenuous. In some cases these propositions are deemed nonsense. In trying to understand this perpetuation of nonsense in instructional and performance technologies, we have found and use for reference a small book by Harry G. Frankfurt titled On Bullshit. This 2005 publication traces the meanings of BS and argues that it is a form of falsehood that is different than lying. Frankfurt disdains nonsense talk and relates it to the now popular concept of a bull session. We hope that you, like us, find Frankfurt's treatise on BS useful in understanding and differentiating between sense and nonsense in the fields of instructional and performance technologies. On Bullshit (2005; 67 pages; ISBN 10:0691122946; hardback $9.95) is published by Princeton University Press.     

When Do Pictures Help Learning from Expository Text? Multimedia and Modality Effects in Primary Schools

Adding pictures to a text is very common in today’s education and might be especially beneficial for elementary school children, whose abilities to read and understand pure text have not yet been fully developed. Our study examined whether adding pictures supports learning of a biology text in fourth grade and whether the text modality (spoken or written) plays a role. Results indicate that overall, pictures enhanced learning but that the text should be spoken rather than written. These results are in line with instructional design principles derived from common multimedia learning theories. In addition, for elementary school children, it might be advisable to read texts out to the children. Reading by themselves and looking at pictures might overload children’s cognitive capacities and especially their visual channel. In this case, text and pictures would not be integrated into one coherent mental model, and effective learning would not take place.     

Modelling and coaching of relevant metacognitive strategies for enhancing university students' learning

Recent developments in strategy instruction research suggest that learning in a particular discipline is enhanced by guiding students through the development of content-relevant metacognitive strategies. The potential of such an instructional approach for university settings is discussed in this paper, and is supported with evidence from an experimental field study. The study, conducted with 28 experimental and 28 matched control students over 13 weeks of an introductory computer science course, involved (a) students' development of a metacognitive strategy relevant for computer programming, (b) modelling and coaching procedures with complete explanations about strategy use, and (c) a socially supportive learning context. The instructional method had significant short-term and long-term effects on students' cognitive and affective learning outcomes.