Provision for students with learning difficulties in general colleges of further education – have we been going round in circles?

In this article, Anne-Marie Wright, lecturer at the University of Chester, considers the current situation for students with severe learn i n g difficulties in general colleges of further education. She presents findings from a critical review of the literature and a small-scale preliminary investigation which set out to explore the idea that, despite radical changes to the special school sector and to the structure and organisation of further education, provision in colleges of further education for these students is poorly focused. Students with severe learning difficulties experience provision that is, at best, circuitous and repetitive and that, at worst, leads individuals back into dependence, unemployment and social segregation. Using the outcomes of her own interviews and the scrutiny of inspection reports, Anne-Marie Wright provides a searching critique of current practice and an interesting set of recommendations for ways in which the situation could be radically reviewed and improved.     

Using the Phono‐Graphix reading programme as a literacy support intervention strategy

The study outlined here was an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of using the Phono‐Graphix reading programme with a group of four struggling readers/non‐readers. The children selected were in Primary 2 and had already had one‐and‐a‐half years of mixed reading instruction strategies – primarily Jolly Phonics with a ‘look and say’ approach. The children were taught in twice weekly ‘pull out’ sessions in addition to learning with their peers in their normal, daily classroom lessons. Results showed that they had improved in all literacy sub‐skills being assessed. Two of them also improved on standardised assessments. All children were observed to be reading (and spelling) more accurately than at the beginning of the project.     

Gender differences in the effects of exposure to intimate partner violence on adolescent violence and drug use

Objective

This study investigated the long-term effects of exposure to intimate partner violence in the home on adolescent violence and drug use and gender differences in these relationships. Although the general relationship between exposure to IPV and negative outcomes for youth has been demonstrated in past research, gender differences in the effects of IPV on adolescents have been rarely assessed using longitudinal data.

Methods

Longitudinal data was obtained from 1,315 adolescents and their primary caregivers participating in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN). The sample was 51% female and ethnically diverse (45% Hispanic, 37% African-American, and 14% Caucasian). Two waves of data were assessed to examine the effects of exposure to IPV, reported by caregivers when their children were aged 12 and 15, on violence and drug use, reported by adolescents 3 years later. Multivariate statistical models were employed to control for a range of child, parent, family, and neighborhood risk factors.

Results

Exposure to IPV did not significantly predict subsequent violence among males or females in multivariate analyses. IPV exposure was significantly related to the frequency of drug use for females but did not predict drug use among males. This gender difference was not statistically significant, however, which suggests more similarities than differences in the relationship between exposure to IPV and subsequent violence and drug use.

Conclusions

This study supports prior research indicating that exposure to IPV can negatively impact adolescent development, but it suggests that these effects may be more likely to influence some outcomes (e.g., drug use) than others (e.g., interpersonal violence). The findings also emphasize the need for additional research examining the overall impact of IPV on adolescent problem behaviors and gender differences in these relationships, including longitudinal studies and investigations that control for a range of other important predictors. A better understanding of these relationships can help inform intervention efforts aimed at ensuring that adolescents living in violent households receive timely and appropriate services to help prevent the occurrence of future problem behaviors.     

大型体育赛事对区域社会体育发展的影响——以广州亚运会为例

为了探讨大型体育赛事对区域社会体育发展的影响,以广州亚运会为例,采用文献资料、问卷调查、数理统计以及逻辑分析等研究方法,论证了大型体育赛事给区域社会体育的发展带来了更大的经济效益;提高了政府的管理;改善了公众锻炼意识和基础设施;增强区域社会体育的受关注度,丰富了活动形式。继而在此基础上提出促进我国区域社会体育发展的建议,旨在实现我国区域社会体育的全面可持续发展。     

网络教育课程论坛教学现状的个案研究

本研究从某大学网络教育学院抽取三门课程做为研究对象,借助探究社区模型及编码体系,从社会性存在、认知性存在和教学性存在三方面来考量其网上教学交互过程。研究发现：课程论坛上社会性存在、教学性存在和认知性存在的水平均较低,教学过程无结构化,学生言论缺乏批判性的思考和批判性的对话,缺乏群体的互动等。建议重视论坛活动的设计与监督,提高教学性存在,掌握“有限存在”以平衡教学过程中抑制和存在之间的关系,重视触发事件的设置,努力使学生从独立学习向协作学习转变。     

后金融危机时代我国中小企业管理模式研究

美国次贷危机引发全球金融风暴,导致全球实体经济损失惨重,我国中小企业深受其害。后金融危机时代,我国中小企业,尤其外贸出口型和劳动密集型企业面临诸多发展困境,它们应提升决策管理地位,建立灵活应对市场变化的管理机制,研究和制定应对影响企业发展的有关法律制度,完善行业组织管理,以应对金融危机的影响。     

The effectiveness of university knowledge spillovers: Performance differences between university spinoffs and corporate spinoffs

While much prior research has focused upon how the Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) and other contextual characteristics shape the level of university spinoffs (USO), there is little research on entrepreneurial potential among individual academics, and to the best of our knowledge, no comparative studies with other types of spinoffs exist to date. In this paper we focus on an important but neglected aspect of knowledge transfer from academic research involving the indirect flow to entrepreneurship by individuals with a university education background who become involved in new venture creation by means of corporate spinoffs (CSO) after gaining industrial experience, rather than leaving university employment to found a new venture as an academic spinoff. We argue that the commercial knowledge gained by industry experience is potentially more valuable for entrepreneurial performance compared to the academic knowledge gained by additional research experience at a university. This leads us to posit that the average performance of CSOs will be higher than comparable USOs, but the gains from founder‘s prior experiences will be relatively higher among USOs whose founders lack the corporate context. We investigate these propositions in a comparative study tracking the complete population of USOs and CSOs among the Swedish knowledge-intensive sectors between 1994 and 2002.