25 Years of Cooperation in Polymer Science:Looking Back and Forward

My feeling is that we are on a good road,which has its origin in the history of our interaction, and leads straight ahead, into a new quality of research culture, resting on a sound basis of mutual trust and friendship.     

Agency problem, institutions, and technology policy: Explaining Taiwan's semiconductor industry development

Taiwan has made significant progress in the semiconductor industry with government agencies and bureaucrats as the driving forces over the past 30 years. Taiwan's impressive achievement in the semiconductor industry clearly indicates that the government failures and agency problem usually associated with deep government involvement did not occur in Taiwan. Why is that the case? This paper proposes a principal-agent framework for technology policy and applies the framework to discuss the institutional arrangements through which bureaucrats were controlled effectively in executing the semiconductor industry policies in Taiwan. By analyzing the institutional and organizational arrangements Taiwanese leaders made to mitigate the agency problem, this paper brings bureaucrats into the popular developmental state theory and emphasizes that the success of state intervention should not be taken for granted, and it also brings politics into technology policy analysis and stresses the importance and complexity of agency problem in technology policy.     

Fostering self-monitoring of university students by means of a standardized learning journal—a longitudinal study with process analyses

The self-regulation of learning behavior is an important key competence for university students. In this presented study, we aimed at fostering students’ self-regulation of learning by means of a standardized learning journal. In two of four courses that were included in the study, students had to keep a structured learning diary and/or received further intervention on self-regulated learning through a weekly course. Students who received these interventions were compared to students who received no treatment whatsoever in their self-regulation and learning achievement. The study reports pre–post measures as well as process analyses. Results revealed that keeping a structured learning diary without any further intervention did not improve students’ self-regulation. Those students who only kept learning diaries even showed a decrease in their motivation. Students who kept the learning diary and at the same time received further information on self-regulation showed increases in their strategy use and their self-efficacy. However, no improvements were found for students’ academic performance. It can be concluded that in order for students to profit in keeping a structured learning diary, they should be informed on the benefits of self-monitoring to increase their motivation.     

Beyond hype and underestimation: identifying research challenges for the future of MOOCs

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have generated enthusiasm, excitement, and hype worldwide and recently increasing skepticism. They are being broadly discussed in the major news media (and to a smaller extent in academic circles). Rapidly increasing numbers of MOOC providers, MOOC courses and articles, discussion groups, and blogs discussing MOOCs are indicators of the involvement of many stakeholders. Most of these analyses and developments are based on economic perspectives (such as scalability, productivity, and being free) and technology perspectives (including platforms supporting large number of students in online environments, enrichment components such as forums, peer-to-peer learning support, and automatic grading). Few contributions analyze MOOCs from a learning science perspective and put them into a larger context with other approaches to learning and education. This commentary explores challenges derived from the perspective to conceptualize MOOCs as being one component in a rich landscape of learning.     

Effective Engagement Strategies for Non-Tenure-Track Faculty in Precollege Mathematics Reform in Community Colleges

The success of efforts to improve student outcomes in precollege mathematics at community colleges hinges on engaging and supporting non-tenure-track faculty [NTTF], who comprise a significant proportion of precollege instructional staff. Although research suggests weak departmental support and barriers and constraints to NTTF engagement, no studies have focused specifically on NTTF in the context of precollege mathematics reform in community colleges. This qualitative case study fills a gap in our understanding through interviews with seven tenure-track faculty [TTF] and 11 NTTF from three departments participating in the Washington State Rethinking Pre-College Mathematics grant. The case study examines the nature and effectiveness of strategies and incentives developed by TTF to engage their NTTF peers in department-led reform of precollege mathematics. Each department was successful in securing NTTF engagement across a broad spectrum, using strategies that included offering perquisites, professional development, and targeted instructional support. The NTTF detailed some changes in their practice, such as diversifying classroom instruction and approaches to assessment. Strategies that successfully initiated engagement (e.g., compensation) differed from those that sustained engagement, with the latter leveraging NTTF interest in growing professionally in order to improve student outcomes and build professional relationships with peers. Findings inform the delivery of NTTF professional development by suggesting that education and training expand beyond the delivery of new content to include relationship building with other faculty. The study's findings also consider NTTF professional development to be a shared responsibility among departments, colleges, systems, and NTTF.     

From “time pass” to transformative force: School-based human rights education in Tamil Nadu, India

This article presents data collected at the level of practice to highlight one non-governmental organization's approach to human rights education and how household-, school-, and community-level factors mediated student impact. Findings suggest that a variety of factors at the three levels contribute to the program's successful implementation in government schools serving marginalized students (where most HRE programs are in operation in India today). These responses emerge along a continuum from ‘time pass’—a commonly used term in India for anything that does not directly contribute to greater performance on high-stakes exams—to ‘transformative force’, wherein students internalize knowledge and values related to human rights and take action based on it. Responses to HRE were characterized in four areas and representative examples are provided of each: (1) personal changes; (2) attempts to intervene in situations of abuse; (3) reporting (or threatening to report) abuse; and (4) spreading awareness about human rights.     

Evaluierung von Studienpl?nen

Gegenstand des vorliegenden Beitrages ist die Vorstellung eines Projektes zur Evaluierung eines Studienplanes in Form der Ermittlung von Verbesserungsm?glichkeiten hinsichtlich der Studienbedingungen. Evaluiert wird der aktuelle Studienplan für die Studienrichtung Betriebswirtschaft an der Karl-Franzens-Universit?t Graz. Zun?chst werden anhand einer kombinierten offenen und strukturierten Befragung Verbesserungswünsche von Studierenden, die nach diesem Studienplan studieren, gewonnen. Im Anschluss werden jene Verbesserungswünsche identifiziert, die realisierbar erscheinen. Zielsetzung der gegenst?ndlichen Evaluierung ist eine Verbesserung der Studienqualit?t.     

A cue or two and I'll trust you: Determinants of trust in government organizations in terms of their processing and usage of citizens' personal information disclosed online

This article discusses the results of a large-scale Internet survey (with 1156 respondents) that investigated the cues and factors that could positively influence Dutch Internet users' trust in government organizations in terms of their usage and processing of citizens' personal data. Confidence in online privacy statements, as indicated by the results of this study, significantly influences trust in government organizations among Dutch Internet users with and without previous e-government experience. Among those with e-government experience, the quality of their online government transaction experience and a positive government organizational reputation can also increase their trust in government organizations, specifically in terms of how they process and use citizens' personal data.