Quality and clarity of health information on Q&A sites

This study investigated the quality and clarity of health information from a total of 238 (126 English and 112 Chinese) answers retrieved from Yahoo!Answers sites. Registered nurses and library professionals judged information quality based on 8 criteria: accuracy, completeness, relevance, readability, verifiability, professional advice, usefulness and non-commercialization. Writing clarity was assessed through rhetorical structure analysis. Results showed that 46% of answers were of poor quality. Furthermore, many Q&A site users were unable to distinguish adequately between high- and low-quality answers. Only 60% of their selected best-answers corresponded to those of the health professionals. These results indicate that the reliability of health information on Q&A sites is questionable. This unreliability may partially be due to the fact that Q&A site answers contain both medical information and social support. Although both are important, they are not always compatible. It may even be dangerous to mistakenly present social support as objective medical information. This research suggests that medical advice and social support should be separated. This has a further advantage in that medical advice could be subjected to stringent, necessary quality assurance measures, without interfering with social support.     

An empirical study of factors related to expenditures and revenues in public doctoral-granting universities

This study of expenditures and revenues of public doctoral-granting institutions in the United States illustrates empirical procedures for analyzing readily available, regularly collected data. Although the models described in the article are not entirely satisfactory, they do provide insights not available from other analytical procedures. The models indicate that major research universities and other doctoral granting institutions are different in terms of their expenditure and revenue patterns. They also suggest that student-related variables are of secondary importance in determining expenditure and revenue levels.     

Factors Influencing Retention of Gen Y and Non-Gen Y Teachers Working at International Schools in Asia

Quantitative studies on international-school teacher retention are few, especially studies that differentiate between Gen Y and non-Gen Y teachers. This article reports on the findings of a study that examined the relationship of job satisfaction factors to the likelihood of contract renewal by international-school teachers. Results from the study show statistically significant relationships between some factors of job satisfaction and contract renewal for teachers in Gen Y and non-Gen Y (Baby Boomers, Gen X) cohorts.     

Can ability and working conditions explain the wage differential across industries and firms?

This article tries to explain the wage differentials across industries and firms by the human capital theory, the compensating wage differential theory or other reasons and also the empirical evidences.     

Evaluation of the Effects of the Medium of Instruction on Science Learning of Hong Kong Secondary Students: Students’ Self-Concept in Science

A longitudinal study has been conducted to explore the impact of a new language policy for Hong Kong secondary schools on science learning. According to this policy, only schools that recruit the best 25% of students can teach science in English, the students' second language, while the other schools have to teach science in Chinese, the students' native language. The study involved a student cohort of 100 schools starting from S1 for three years. The outcome of science learning is conceptualized as consisting of students' achievement and self-concept in science. This paper reports the possible effects of English-medium instruction (EMI) and Chinese-medium instruction (CMI) on students' self-concept in science, as measured by students' responses to a questionnaire. Comparing with the CMI students, the EMI students showed higher self-concepts in Chinese, English and Mathematics, but a lower self-concept in science. This finding suggests that the EMI students might experience greater learning problems in science than in other subjects, probably because science learning involves abstract thinking and the mastery of scientific terminology which make a high demand on language proficiency. The EMI students showed a greater interest in learning science than the CMI students, indicating that they were more academically oriented. The EMI students, however, formed a lower perceived self-competence in science than their CMI peers, despite that they performed better in the science achievement test than many of the CMI students. This perception supports the view that using English for instruction may have negative effects on science learning. It is also consistent with the observation that the EMI students perceived science as more difficult to understand and learn than the CMI students.     

Effects of reward pedagogy on spelling scores and prosocial behaviors in primary school students in Singapore

Abstract

Effects of reward pedagogy (competitive, cooperative, individualistic, cooperative-competitive, and cooperative-individualistic) on spelling scores and prosocial behavior in Singapore students were examined alongside its interplay with ability level. A total of 1005 Primary 3 and 4 students were randomly assigned to one of the five reward pedagogies, with students rewarded based on their spelling scores. An ABABA design (A?=?implementation; B?=?withdrawal) was used for each reward pedagogy. Results revealed an interaction between reward pedagogy and ability level on both spelling scores and prosocial behavior, such that different pedagogies were more effective for different ability levels. One promising way forward, however, draws from the finding that cooperative-competitive reward pedagogy was effective for both outcomes across all ability groups.     

Eye movements of monkeys during brightness discrimination and discrimination reversal

Eye movements of two stump-tailed monkeys were measured during performance on an easy and a difficult brightness discrimination problem with and without a relatively long fixation required at the beginning of each trial for purposes of calibration. The duration of an individual fixation of the discriminative stimuli was unrelated to most of the variables that were examined, including problem difficulty, response outcome, whether the S+ or the S? was fixated, and presence or absence of a long fixation at the beginning of a trial. Duration of fixation increased markedly, though temporarily, following reversal of the hard problem. The animals tended to do a minimal amount of scanning of the discriminative stimuli and to fixate most frequently on S+ before responding. In general, the results did not support an account of observing behavior in terms of conventional reinforcement.     

The Introduction of a Computerised Network to Support Educational Change in Hong Kong

In 1998, there was a major shift in the medium of instruction in Hong Kong secondary schools from English to Chinese. This change had many educational advantages. However, its implementation was not without problems, and many of the problems were non-trivial. This article reports the work of a computer network, specifically established to support the educational change and discuss about the strategy to provide effective support to educational changes through computer networking, including issues on service positions, content provision and the development of network culture interaction.     

Impact of attitudes, ethnicity and quality of prior therapy on New Zealand male prisoners' intentions to seek professional psychological help

A sample of 111 male prisoners returned a questionnaire which assessed helpseeking intentions, psychological distress, treatment fearfulness and attitudes toward professional psychological helpseeking. Results indicated that more favourable attitudes were associated with increased helpseeking intentions. In general, non-Maori inmates and those with positive prior helpseeking experiences had more positive attitudes and higher helpseeking intentions than those who had neutral or negative prior helpseeking experiences. Contrary to expectations male prisoners had lower helpseeking intentions for "suicidal thoughts" than for a "personal-emotional problem".     

Orthographic Knowledge Promotes Young Chinese Children’s Character Writing Performance

Abstract

The present study aimed at developing young children’s knowledge of the structure and function of orthographic components of Chinese characters and words. Grade 2, eight-year-old Chinese children (N = 541) were taught a twelve-week training programme in two quasi experimental conditions: analytic and synthetic approach (ASA), and integrated analytic and synthetic approach (INA). A traditional memorisation and drill approach (TRA) was the control condition. MANOVAs and hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed the INA was more effective as compared with the ASA and the TRA in the post-training character writing performance. The groups performed differentially in the eight bujian (‘radical’ components) processing tasks as indicators of their character and word writing performance. A confirmatory factor analysis found these eight indicator tasks subserved well the three latent constructs of Word Form Retrieval, Bujian Analysis and Synthesis and Bujian Compounding. Bujian analysis and synthesis are emphasised in the character-centred approach in learning and teaching Chinese lexical items.