Mapping public support for innovation: A comparison of policy alignment in the UK and France

This paper proposes and tests a three-dimensional model of public support design as a framework to compare public incentives for innovation in firms through time and across countries, and consequently to compare forms of policy alignment of innovation objectives in an economy. Using data on 149 French and British policy programmes from the early 1980s to 2002, this paper shows that policy-makers implement programmes within a different three-dimensional design space in order to align several distinctive objectives and consequently strengthen the impact of governmental measures. Moreover, as the objectives of the national players and policy-makers evolved, the portfolio of innovation policies also evolved in their separate ways. Nevertheless, some similar trends are also observed.     

Cognitive and Neural Development of Individuated Self-Representation in Children

Processing the self-relevance of information facilitates recall. Similarly, processing close-other-related information facilitates recall to a lesser degree than processing self-relevant information. This memory advantage may be viewed as an index of the degree to which the representation of self is differentiated from representations of close others. To test developmental hypotheses concerning the self, this study examined the relation of memory for self- and mother-referentially processed information in participants age 7–13 years (Experiment 1: N  = 37; Experiment 2: N  = 14). Memory for words encoded with reference to oneself increases with age, relative to memory for words encoded with reference to one's mother. When used as an individual difference measure, the difference in self versus mother memory correlates with regions of the rostral anterior cingulate associated with affective salience.     

Student engagement in neo-liberal times: what is missing?

Quality teaching is increasingly prioritized in higher education. One reason is that government funding requires students to succeed in their studies and be ready for employment. In response, educators throughout the Western world have generated large quantities of evidence-based, practical, often uncritical research about what works to improve teaching, learning and student success. Much of this research carries the label student engagement. But student engagement is a complex construct used to identify what students do, think and feel when learning and how teachers can improve that doing, thinking and feeling in instructional settings. Despite its extensive coverage of learning and teaching, the paper asks whether something is missing from student engagement. It recognizes the complexity of the engagement construct and examines its key ideas but identifies three missing elements: critique; learning agency/democracy; as well as purposes, knowledge and values that transcend powerful political discourses in neo-liberal times.     

The effect of learning style on preference for web‐based courses and learning outcomes

As the number of courses offered online increases rapidly, it is important for teachers and institutions to identify specific learner characteristics of successful online students. This paper reports on a study that compared an online group of freshmen computer science majors with an equivalent on‐campus group to find if their individual learning styles play a role in the selection of course delivery mode (online or face to face) and in their academic achievement. No significant statistical differences were detected in learning styles and learning performance between the two groups. Implications for teaching practice and design of learning activities that resulted from this study are discussed.     

The learning credit card: A tool for managing personal development*

This is the report of a five month study, undertaken by Sundridge Park Training Technologies in association with Guildford Educational Services to assess the potential of smart card technology to support learning and the management of learning. The study had two strands—the state of the art of the technology and its potential for supporting, delivering and managing learning. In addition to a study of the literature and extensive discussions with people using smart cards, potential users of smart card and visionaries, the project team developed two illustrative systems using cards to store personal data relating to education and training. The term ‘smart card’ is often used loosely to describe three different types of card, each of which is similar in general shape and size to a traditional credit card. These are: memory cards, laser cards—and true smart cards incorporating a processor and memory. This study has been concerned with memory cards and smart cards. The focus for smart card applications has been predominantly financial: there are relatively few applications in education or training. A notable exception is the large scale project at the University of Bologna which uses smart cards to manage the progress and achievements of a large number of students in the Department of Electronics. The two illustrative systems provided valuable experience of using memory cards and smart cards in quasi‐real education and training applications. They highlighted the problems of limited memory capacities and confirmed the high level of user acceptance reported by other trials. We can expect considerable advances in the technology of both memory cards and smart cards over the next months and years. The memory capacities of both types of cards will increase many‐fold and the unit costs will fall as large quantities of cards are produced for financial applications. Education and training applications will benefit from this expanding market. The major surprise from the study was the level of interest in the work and the enthusiasm expressed by almost all of those who came to hear of it. The general level of awareness of smart card technology was found to be low. However, the requirement for a system which will enable individuals to manage and own their learning on an extended timescale was generally recognised. Some of the possible applications for smart cards and memory cards in education and training had emerged before the official start of the study and it is clear that the technology is potentially pervasive. The project team and those consulted identified a wide range of possible applications both in education and in training. These focussed on assessment, personal course planning and management, identification of relevant learning opportunities, and the ownership of learning. It was felt that, over the next few years, smart cards are very likely to be in common use as credit cards for financial applications. Therefore, their use for education and training should be planned now. The recommendations from the study are that: More detailed studies are needed to find out how smart cards and memory cards could be used by different organisations in a fully operational system; Standards should be established for smart card applications in education and training, similar to those governing financial applications; Applications should be developed after the standards have been established. To be convincing, these should take a case study approach with small pilot studies in a variety of contexts and must follow real needs rather than attempt to drive them; The case studies would then form the basis for a campaign to increase awareness of smart cards and their potential for education and training, together with a programme for building an infrastructure to support the proposed systems. The public sector should fund the task of developing standards and providing interfaces with existing educational systems and projects to demonstrate the feasibility of various applications. Since educational standards have a European dimension, the European Community may be a source of support for work in the area of standards. At the same time, private sector funding should be sought for skill development and career development systems in industry and in education. The Training Agency itself should consider the application of smart card technology to the control and management of the Youth Training Scheme (YTS).     

Shirt tales: how adults adopted the replica football kit

ABSTRACT

This study seeks to identify when the replica football shirt transitioned from children’s sportswear to adult leisurewear, and explain why this occurred. Four distinct facets of this process are examined – the production of adult sizes by manufacturers, the promotion of replica shirts by clubs and retailers, purchasing by adults, and the ‘parading’, i.e. wearing of shirts at matches. Data collected from manufacturer’s catalogues, magazine adverts, match programmes and over 900 crowd photos indicates that replica shirt adoption by adult males as match-day clothing was not initially driven by an existing industry, but began as a fan-inspired process with roots in big-match fancy dress traditions, changes in wider social dress codes, and youth subcultures. Replica football shirts were adopted by adult males in distinct phases, each involving different sub-groups of fans, with the coincidental removal of barriers to wearing replica shirts more influential than manufacturer strategies or promotions. Moreover, the specific timings and drivers of each stage reflect the dramatic changes in English football culture over the last two decades of the twentieth century more accurately than the established but simplistic pre- and post-1990 World Cup or pre- and post-Premier League narratives.     

An Investigation of User Comments on Facebook Pages of Trinidad and Tobago’s Indian Music Format Radio Stations

Starting in the 1990s, the Caribbean two-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago witnessed the establishment of several Indian-music format radio stations, most of which now stream their content on the World Wide Web or otherwise make their content available beyond the range of their terrestrial radio transmitters. The convergence of traditional terrestrial radio with audio streaming technology combined with the spread of high speed broadband connections has expanded the audience of a typical radio station from a few kilometers to a globally dispersed set of listeners who often include those physically displaced from their native cultural programming. The present investigation examines the Facebook comments of domestic and foreign listeners to Indian-music format radio stations from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.