Does teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge affect their fluency instruction?

The relation is studied between teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of reading and the quality of their subsequent classroom behaviour in teaching fluent reading. A confirmatory factor analysis model with two latent variables is tested and shows adequate goodness-of-fit indices. Contrary to our expectations, the results of structural equation modelling reveal a small but significant γ-value of .29, indicating that only 8% of the variance in teachers’ classroom behaviour in teaching fluent reading is accounted for by teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge of reading. Presumably teacher knowledge is not as stable and conclusive as one might think. More research is needed in determining the factors that work restricting for teachers in putting their knowledge into classroom practice. It is recommended that preservice and in-service teacher training should not be limited to transfer of knowledge, but should also assist teachers in designing and performing effective fluent reading instruction.     

The Misspecification of the Covariance Structures in Multilevel Models for Single-Case Data: A Monte Carlo Simulation Study

The impact of misspecifying covariance matrices at the second and third levels of the three-level model is evaluated. Results indicate that ignoring existing covariance has no effect on the treatment effect estimate. In addition, the between-case variance estimates are unbiased when covariance is either modeled or ignored. If the research interest lies in the between-study variance estimate, including at least 30 studies is warranted. Modeling covariance does not result in less biased between-study variance estimates as the between-study covariance estimate is biased. When the research interest lies in the between-case covariance, the model including covariance results in unbiased between-case variance estimates. The three-level model appears to be less appropriate for estimating between-study variance if fewer than 30 studies are included.     

Globalization and the freedom of knowledge

This article considers the transmission of knowledge in higher education. It takes the metaphor of the music industry that pre‐selects the music people can buy. The sales potential is the leading principle in the selection process. Often the small producer is excluded because his or her music is not of commercial interest. The end‐customer does not know what he or she is missing because he or she has never heard the music. It is to be feared that a similar market principle will also influence the selection of knowledge and affect the capacity of higher education institutions to freely generate and transmit new knowledge. The globalization of higher education risks homogenizing the cultural traditions of the non‐Western world through a process of Western cultural domination. On the other hand, the Internet, via open source software like LINUX, might serve to democratize higher education and allow greater grassroots input.     

Distributing and Showing Farmer Learning Videos in Bangladesh

Purpose: To describe the results of showing farmer learning videos through different types of volunteers.

Design/Methodology/Approach: Semi-structured interviews with volunteers from different occupational groups in Bangladesh, and a phone survey with 227 respondents.

Findings: Each occupational group acted differently. Shop keepers, tillage service providers, agricultural input and machine dealers reached fairly small audiences. Tea stall owners had large, male audiences. Non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations, reached more women. The cable TV (dish-line) operators showed the videos on local TV, but some were reluctant to do so again. The Union Information Service Centres showed the videos and reached women viewers. Half of the official government extension agents surveyed also showed the videos publically.

Practical Implication: This video featured maize, wheat and rice seeding machinery. Because the machinery is complex and requires hands-on training, this first video aimed to expose tillage and sowing service providers and farmers to the machinery, without trying to teach them how to use it. But some farmers were so interested that they watched the video many times to learn more about the equipment. Before farmers and service providers decide to buy machinery for direct seeding, they still want to see and learn from demonstration plantings, to examine first-hand how the crop behaves when planted with the new equipment.

Originality/Value: Video can be an effective way of sharing high-quality information with a large audience, if properly distributed.     

Introduction to the research policy 20th anniversary special issue of the publication of “Profiting from Innovation” by David J. Teece

This introductory essay reviews the key contributions of David Teece's landmark paper “Profiting from Innovation” published in research policy in 1986. It summarises the contributions of each of the papers in the special issue. It then offers some perspectives on the key themes emerging from these papers, and on the broader challenges facing researchers, strategists and policymakers in the field of technology innovation today.     

Mergers and acquisitions: Their effect on the innovative performance of companies in high-tech industries

This study examines the post-M&A innovative performance of acquiring firms in four major high-tech sectors. Non-technological M&As appear to have a negative impact on the acquiring firm's post-M&A innovative performance. With respect to technological M&As, a large relative size of the acquired knowledge base reduces the innovative performance of the acquiring firm. The absolute size of the acquired knowledge base only has a positive effect during the first couple of years after which the effect turns around and we see a negative effect on the innovative performance of the acquiring firm. The relatedness between the acquired and acquiring firms’ knowledge bases has a curvilinear impact on the acquiring firm's innovative performance. This indicates that companies should target M&A ‘partners’ that are neither too unrelated nor too similar in terms of their knowledge base.     

A catalytic and evolutionary approach to horizontal technology policies (HTPs)

This paper presents an evolutionary framework for horizontal technology policies (HTPs) especially market-friendly ones involving project-based incentives (e.g. R&D project based grants rather than tax-based incentives to yearly expenditures on R&D). HTPs are a category of technological policies whose objective is to promote technological development per se, and associated management and organizational routines, irrespective of industrial branch or technological area. They are being increasingly adopted by both advanced countries and newly industrialized countries in response to the new opportunities and threats opened up by the technological revolution and by the processes of liberalization and globalization; and they complement the more specific and well-known selective and vertical policies aimed at individual sectors and technologies. The analysis is conducted within a learning-to-innovate framework with emphasis on collective, organizational learning; search; and market-building. The outcome is a technology policy cycle with distinct infant, growth, and mature phases. Proactive ‘generation’ of a critical mass of projects for efficient learning and diffusion of innovation routines becomes the aim of the infant phase; while the mature phase of the policy should focus on policy restructuring including drastic reductions in the support of routi projects and enhanced support of more complex types of innovation. The paper also emphasizes the importance of a neutrality component in incentives in the infant phase of increasing selectivity; and of building policy capabilities for efficient policy design and implementation.