The disadvantaged student at a liberal arts college

In the fall of 1969, a program to expand educational opportunities (EEO) for economically disadvantaged students was initiated at Macalester College. During the first three years of the program, the percentage of non-white students at the College rose from 3% to approximately 15%.Average grades for the EEO students were approximately one standard deviation below those of a random non-EEO sample, similar to the differences in high school grades between the two groups. However, the EEO students persisted at Macalester College at a slightly higher rate than non-EEO students. The EEO students also were more likely than non-EEO students to major in the behavioral/social sciences and less likely to major in the fine arts, humanities, and physical sciences.     

Mathematical Reasoning Requirements in Swedish National Physics Tests

This paper focuses on one aspect of mathematical competence, namely mathematical reasoning, and how this competency influences students’ knowing of physics. This influence was studied by analysing the mathematical reasoning requirements upper secondary students meet when solving tasks in national physics tests. National tests are constructed to mirror the goals stated in the curricula, and these goals are similar across national borders. The framework used for characterising the mathematical reasoning required to solve the tasks in the national physics tests distinguishes between imitative and creative mathematical reasoning. The analysis process consisted of structured comparisons between representative student solutions and the students’ educational history. Of the 209 analysed tasks, 3/4 required mathematical reasoning in order to be solved. Creative mathematical reasoning, which, in particular, involves reasoning based on intrinsic properties, was required for 1/3 of the tasks. The results in this paper give strong evidence that creative mathematical reasoning is required to achieve higher grades on the tests. It is also confirmed that mathematical reasoning is an important and integral part of the physics curricula; and, it is suggested that the ability to use creative mathematical reasoning is necessary to fully master the curricula.     

The epistemological role of language use in learning: A phenomenographic intentional-expressive approach

In research on learning, one of the fundamental questions concerns issues of language and thought. A number of empirical studies have revealed the interplay between understanding of subject matter and meanings of language expressions to be more dynamic and ambiguous than is commonly acknowledged. The aim of this article is to outline an alternative intentional-expressive approach to the interplay between use of language and understanding of subject matter as a contribution to the theoretical development in research on learning. The approach is based on a conception of language that focuses on the function of learners’ language use in relation to subject matter in developing and expressing understanding. The learner is seen as an agent, and the focus is on the use of language from the learner's perspective. Four aspects of the relation between learners and subject matter are described and discussed. Conclusions concern the value of this approach as a complement and alternative to the dominant communicative and cognitive approaches to the role of language in learning.     

Conveying clinical reasoning based on visual observation via eye-movement modelling examples

Complex perceptual tasks, like clinical reasoning based on visual observations of patients, require not only conceptual knowledge about diagnostic classes but also the skills to visually search for symptoms and interpret these observations. However, medical education so far has focused very little on how visual observation skills can be efficiently conveyed to novices. The current study applied a novel instructional method to teach these skills by showing the learners how an expert model visually searches and interprets symptoms (i.e., eye-movement modelling examples; EMMEs). Case videos of patients were verbally explained by a model (control condition) and presented to students. In the experimental conditions, the participants received a recording of the model’s eye movements superimposed on the case videos. The eye movements were displayed by either highlighting the features the model focused on with a circle (the circle condition) or by blurring the features the model did not focus on (the spotlight condition). Compared to the other two conditions, results show that a spotlight on the case videos better guides the students’ attention towards the relevant features. Moreover, when testing the students’ clinical reasoning skills with videos of new patient cases without any guidance, participants studying EMMEs with a spotlight showed improved their visual search and enhanced interpretation performance of the symptoms in contrast to participants in either the circle or the control condition. These findings show that a spotlight EMME can successfully convey clinical reasoning based on visual observations.     

Measuring the effect of charter schools on public school student achievement in an urban environment: Evidence from New York City

This paper uses student level data from New York City to study the relationship between a public school losing enrollment to charter school competitors and the academic achievement of students who remain enrolled in it. Geographic measures most often used to study the effect of school choice policies on public school student achievement are not well suited for densely populated urban environments. I adopt a direct approach and measure charter school exposure as the percentage of a public school's students who exited for a charter school at the end of the previous year. Depending on model specification, I find evidence that students in schools losing more students to charter schools either are unaffected by the competitive pressures of the choice option or benefit mildly in both math and English.     

The Watch-and-Wait Task: On the reliability and validity of a new method of assessing self-control in preschool children

A preschooler's ability to delay gratification in the waiting task is predictive of several developmental outcomes, despite this task's relatively low reliability level. Success in this task depends on the use of distraction strategies. The new Watch-and-Wait Task (WWT) has been developed to enhance reliability and to investigate whether the waiting situation is equally predictive if distraction from the reward is inhibited. To prevent distraction in the WWT, children were instructed to watch an hourglass run out during the waiting period. In a reliability analysis (n = 31) the WWT showed acceptable retest reliability. In a second study (n = 61), the time preschoolers spent waiting in the WWT was associated with later academic achievement and behavioral problems diagnosed at the end of grade 1, even after controlling for intelligence, gender and age. Overall, the WWT proved to be a reliable instrument predictive of children's behavioral and academic development.     

Cognitive preconditions of early reading and spelling: a latent-variable approach with longitudinal data

The aim of the present study was to empirically disentangle the interdependencies of the impact of nonverbal intelligence, working memory capacities, and phonological processing skills on early reading decoding and spelling within a latent variable approach. In a sample of 127 children, these cognitive preconditions were assessed before the onset of formal education, whereas reading as well as spelling achievement was measured at the end of grade 1. The findings indicate that working memory does contribute to the prediction of early reading and spelling, and that this contribution outperforms that of general intelligence and phonological recoding from long-term memory during the early steps of reading and spelling acquisition. Moreover, the results show that phonological awareness mediates the effects of working memory capacities on early literacy outcomes. The role of working memory and phonological awareness as key cognitive preconditions of early reading and spelling are discussed.     

Real options theory,flexibility and the media industry

Abstract

This conceptual paper is based on two propositions: 1.) An efficient flexibility management is a critical success factor for media companies. 2.) The concept of real options theory (ROT) aims at improving a company's flexibility management. As a consequence, it is analysed how ROT can contribute to the flexibility management in media companies. In this context, two research issues are investigated. First, it is shown that real options as substantiations of flexibility are of great importance for media companies: In doing so, it is outlined that options which focus on a company's fixed costs management and options which aim at improving a company's sales situation are of high relevance for all segments in the media industry. Contrarily, options which focus on a company's variable costs are only relevant for media companies engaged in the print segment. Second, it is illustrated how ROT can contribute to the reactive and proactive management of flexibility in media companies.     

Shaping the Agenda of Local Daily Newspapers: A Methodology Merging the Agenda Setting and Community Structure Perspectives

Community structure research investigates the influence of the local community and specific demographic groups in the community on the degree of emphasis that particular public issues receive in a local newspaper. In contrast to this internal source of influence, intermedia agenda setting emphasizes the external influence of other news media and the national journalistic culture on the news decisions of local daily newspapers. To invoke a cliché, the agenda-setting and community structure perspectives are opposite sides of the same coin and should be considered in tandem. The research design and procedure for statistical analysis presented here, which involves the simultaneous investigation of the influence resulting from community structure and intermedia agenda setting, is a path for new research that can present a detailed explication of the balance between local and national influence on the issue agenda of local daily newspapers.