Students’ confidence in their performance judgements: a comparison of different response scales

We report results of two studies on metacognitive accuracy with undergraduate education students. Participating students were asked to judge their personal performance in a multiple-choice exam as well as to state their confidence in their performance judgement (second-order judgement [SOJ]). In each study, we compared four conditions that differed in the type of the presented 5-point confidence scale for SOJs. In Study 1, four bipolar scales with different labels were applied; in Study 2, unipolar and bipolar scales were implemented. The results of Study 1 with N?=?420 students show that undergraduates on average provided accurate performance estimations. However, students were not aware of their judgement accuracy, shown by a low fit of SOJ and judgement accuracy. In addition, the type of provided scale significantly influenced the SOJs. Study 2 with N?=?348 students replicated the findings of the first study and gave further insight into the effects of uni- vs. bipolar response scales.     

Social-perspective coordination and gifted adolescents’ friendship quality

This research examined links among academic ability, social-perspective coordination, and friendship quality, within the context of gifted adolescents’ friendships. The sample consisted of 120 early adolescents (59 girls, 61 boys), 81 of whom were identified as gifted. Academic ability, sex, and grade significantly predicted social-perspective coordination (an indicator of psychosocial maturity) in multiple regression analyses. Social-perspective coordination, perceptions (self-concept) of ability to make and keep friends, academic ability, sex, and grade predicted perceptions of the overall quality of friendships. Being a female, seventh grader, or adolescent not identified as gifted, significantly predicted higher friendship quality. Social-perspective coordination and self-concept based on having a close friend predicted higher levels of friendship quality for the gifted participants.     

Simulation and experimental determination of the online separation of blood components with the help of microfluidic cascading spirals

Microfluidic spirals were used to successfully separate rare solid components from unpretreated human whole blood samples. The measured separation ratio of the spirals is the factor by which the concentration of the rare component is increased due to the Dean effect present in a flow profile in a curved duct. Different rates of dilution of the blood samples with a phosphate-buffered solution were investigated. The diameters of the spherical particles to separate ranged from 2 μm to 18 μm. It was found that diluting the blood to 20% is optimal leading to a separation ratio up to 1.97. Using two spirals continuously placed in a row led to an increase in separation efficacy in samples consisting of phosphate-buffered solution only from 1.86 to 3.79. Numerical investigations were carried out to display the flow profiles of Newtonian water samples and the shear-thinning blood samples in the cross-section of the experimentally handled channels. A macroscopic difference in velocity between the two rheologically different fluids could not be found. The macroscopic Dean flow is equally present and useful to help particles migrate to certain equilibrium positions in blood as well as lower viscous Newtonian fluids. The investigations highlight the potential for using highly concentrated, very heterogeneous, and non-Newtonian fluidic systems in known microsystems for screening applications.     

A resourcification manifesto: Understanding the social process of resources becoming resources

In times of major global interconnectedness and environmental change, the pressure to identify, create, and exploit new resources is certain to intensify. Given that there are unavoidable trade-offs, conflicts, and arenas for violence involved when increasingly more material and immaterial things are turned into resources, we call for explicit research on the very process – a process that we label resourcification. The concept of resourcification shifts attention from essentialist queries about the nature of resources to a focus on the social processes through which things are turned into resources. In search of a better understanding of resources in the Anthropocene and, in particular, an understanding about the way resources emerge and are used, resourcification offers a new conceptual framework that allows for a systematic search for knowledge about the diversity of contexts, conditions, modes, and temporalities of resourcification. This Resourcification Manifesto offers a theoretical and empirical framework for a radical and disruptive approach to innovation, sustainability, and management studies and policies.     

Developing an agent-based adaptive system for scaffolding self-regulated inquiry learning in history education

This article presents a methodology for modelling the development of self-regulated learning skills in the context of computer-based learning environments using a combination of tracing techniques. The user-modelling techniques combine statistical and computational approaches to assess skill acquisition, practice, and refinement with the MetaHistoReasoning tool, a single-agent system that supports inquiry-based learning in the domain of history. Data were collected from twenty-two undergraduate students during a 4-h session where user interactions were logged by the system. A logistic regression model predicted user performance in relation to a skill categorization task with 75 % accuracy. The manner in which users apply the skills that are acquired is then assessed through a rule-based reasoning system that allows the pedagogical agent to adapt instruction. The results show that the model allows the agent to detect instances when skills are inappropriately applied as well as what type of goal that is pursued by students. We discuss the implications of these user-modelling techniques in terms of sequencing instructional content and using the tutoring agent to deliver several types of discourse moves in order to enhance learning.     

Wirksamkeit schulrelevanter Förderung in Kindertagesstätten

The present paper summarizes international and national research findings on the general and differential effectiveness of pedagogical work in early childhood education and care settings, evaluations of pilot projects on compensatory preschool education as well programs to support individual learning abilities. Based on these findings, the following conclusions are drawn: First, attending early childhood education and care settings at an early age (after the age of three) has a positive influence on the development of academic competences. Second, the effectiveness of these settings depends on the instructional quality, which could be considerably improved in Germany. Third, pilot projects on programs to support individual learning abilities could show that compensatory effects for disadvantaged groups of children exist, especially when they are interlinked with stimulating conditions in the family and at school. Fourth, effective training programs exist that can be implemented in early childhood education and care. However, a number of challenges need to be met before they can be successfully implemented.     

Anorexia athletica in pre-professional ballet dancers

Competitive sport has been under increasing discussion as a possible favourable factor in the development of eating disorders among children and adolescents. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of sport-specific eating disorders, in line with the concept of anorexia athletica. This prospective field study included one experimental group and two control groups (disease and healthy). Fifty-two pre-professional ballet dancers aged 13-20 years were tested for clinical eating disorders, anorexia athletica criteria, eating disorder related psychopathology and self-concept, and were compared with 52 patients with anorexia nervosa and 44 non-athletic controls of the same age. The study was conducted using semi-structured interviews as well as self-report questionnaires. A clinical eating disorder diagnosis was made in 1.9% of the ballet dancers versus 0% of the high school students; anorexia athletica was diagnosed in 5.8% of the dancers versus 2.3% of the students. Ballet dancers scored lower than patients with anorexia nervosa with regard to eating disorder related psychopathology and higher than the patients with regard to self-concept. We conclude that more sensitive tools to differentiate between sport-specific (eating) patterns, anorexia athletica and clinically relevant eating disorders are needed, especially for aesthetic sports such as ballet. It remains an important goal to identify athletes with symptoms of anorexia athletica irrespective of their physique and/or sport.