‘Go west young man!’ Youth apprenticeship and opportunity structures in two Canadian provinces

Most Canadian provinces offer high-school apprenticeships to facilitate students’ transitions to skilled work and address employers’ concerns about labour shortages. Using interview data with graduates from high-school apprenticeships in Alberta and Ontario, we analyse the impact participation in these programmes has had on their educational and occupational pathways. Findings show the importance of opportunity structures on the employment and education trajectories of young apprentices. High demands for skilled workers in Alberta, associated with the province’s exploration of large oil sands deposits, are contrasted with a contracting labour market in Ontario, which is more dependent on employment in the service and manufacturing sectors. Findings show that economic conditions and the availability of post-secondary alternatives affect young people’s decisions to enter and persist in apprenticeships. We also argue, however, that tighter regulatory frameworks are required to protect young people in apprenticeships from exploitative practices.     

Using query logs of USPTO patent examiners for automatic query expansion in patent searching

In the patent domain significant efforts are invested to assist researchers in formulating better queries, preferably via automated query expansion. Currently, automatic query expansion in patent search is mostly limited to computing co-occurring terms for the searchable features of the invention. Additional query terms are extracted automatically from patent documents based on entropy measures. Learning synonyms in the patent domain for automatic query expansion has been a difficult task. No dedicated sources providing synonyms for the patent domain, such as patent domain specific lexica or thesauri, are available. In this paper we focus on the highly professional search setting of patent examiners. In particular, we use query logs to learn synonyms for the patent domain. For automatic query expansion, we create term networks based on the query logs specifically for several USPTO patent classes. Experiments show good performance in automatic query expansion using these automatically generated term networks. Specifically, with a larger number of query logs for a specific patent US class available the performance of the learned term networks increases.     

Cognitive load in interactive knowledge construction

The focus of this special issue is on the cognitive load underlying processes of interactive knowledge construction in a wide range of instructional multimedia platforms. Multimedia comprehension involves the parallel processing of auditory–verbal and visual–pictorial channels within working memory. By means of integrating multimodal information, students are able to acquire new knowledge. However, the processes of knowledge construction may be dependent on the load a task imposes on the learner's cognitive system. Such cognitive load is determined by prior knowledge, motivation, and processing strategies on the part of the learner as well as on task demands. Other critical factors that should be explored are goal adoption and perspective taking, effects of interactive animation, environmental support, and possibilities of collaboration.     

The impact of metamemory and domain-specific knowledge on memory performance

This paper consists of two major parts. First, research exploring possible interactions between metamemory and domain-specific knowledge in influencing children’s text recall and comprehension is briefly summarized. Overall, the findings indicate that metacognitive knowledge does make a difference even in cases where domain-specific knowledge is rich. Second, a recent experiment conducted in our lab and investigating the generalizability of this conclusion for sort-recall tasks is described in more detail. Third — and fourth-grade soccer experts and novices were first given a comprehensive metamemory questionnaire and then administered a sort-recall tasks using two different picture lists: whereas one list included items from various semantical categories (e.g., animals, clothes), the other list was composed of soccer pictures that could be classified in several categories such as players, kicks, or equipment. The results showed that although domain-specific knowledge had a strong impact on recall of the soccer list, general metacognitive knowledge made an independent contribution, particularly for the group of soccer experts. More specifically, good metamemory positively affected the recall of experts but had no impact on novices’ memory performance.     

The relation between self-regulation and the embedding of support in learning environments

The current study investigates whether embedding support may provide a solution to sub optimal use of support and whether this is related to learners’ self-regulation skills and goal orientation. Sixty students were divided in a condition where support was embedded and a condition where support was non-embedded. Results reveal that the embedded group used more and spent more time on the use of support. Quality of use differed for one support device only, with quality being higher in the non-embedded group. An interaction with self-regulation was found. High self-regulators use the support devices less optimal when support is embedded. No conclusions could be drawn with respect to goal orientation. Quality of usage and proportional time spent on support influenced learning outcomes.     

Didaktische Entwicklungsforschung als Transferförderung

“Transfer” from research into practical applications is mostly seen as an autonomous domain between research and practice. For educational research, the author develops a conception in which transfer is a part of research, especially of applied educational research with a focus on teaching activities and teaching-learning materials. The criticism of traditional teaching research is examined and a research and development approach to didactics is proposed as a chance to combine theory and practice. The article comprises considerations on the scientific nature of research and development in didactics borrowing concepts from Bunge and Stokes and R & D in the economic sciences. The last section shows two research examples and closes with considerations for process and product evaluation in didactic research and development.     

Editorial

This issue contains a fine variety of articles: a historicalstudy, two studies in which theories and data are combined,a methodological study, and three research notes. The issueis completed with a book review, an overview of recent booksand articles in the field of public opinion, and WAPOR news. The first article