School phobia and separation anxiety: Diagnostic and treatment comparisons

There exists substantial confusion regarding the comparative diagnostic criteria and treatment implications for school phobia and separation anxiety. A literature survey demonstrates the tendency of school personnel to put all youngsters exhibiting these disorders into one group called “school refusers.” Treatment issues are handled in a similar fashion despite accumulating evidence of treatment-relevant differences between the disorders. Variables that facilitate a finer diagnostic discrimination are presented. After reviewing pertinent treatment distinctions between the two disorders, specific behaviorally oriented methods are recommended.     

Demand articulation in emerging technologies: Intermediary user organisations as co-producers?

User involvement is assumed to be beneficial to innovation processes. Intermediary user organisations contribute to articulating societal demands for innovations. However, the learning processes inside these organisations are still not understood well. Therefore, this paper empirically investigates intermediaries using an event history approach. It yields characteristic learning mechanisms, e.g. concerning the management of expectations or actively building a case. If intermediaries overcome challenges regarding positioning, representation and the level of proactivity, they can play a precarious role in demand articulation in the context of new technologies.     

“They Even Speak Tsotsitaal with Their Teachers at School”: The Use (and Abuse) of African Urban Youth Languages in Educational Contexts

Abstract

African Urban Youth Languages (AUYLs) are increasingly coming under the spotlight of linguists and sociolinguists across the continent, who are investigating their relationship to standard and/or vernacular varieties. Simultaneously, they are being discussed by educators and education researchers, although little has yet been published in this critical area. The difficulties for educators posed by students speaking “non-standard” varieties has been highlighted by recent studies investigating literacy and language in the classroom. This article presents an overview of some of the challenges posed to education by AUYLs. It considers recent studies of AUYLs in educational contexts from around the continent. It then presents data from South Africa which highlights different orientations towards the South African AUYL “Tsotsitaal” in educational domains. The argument is made that the position of both teachers and pupils is vulnerable, and that the legitimacy of the distinction between standard language and urban vernacular language needs to be reconsidered.     

External knowledge sourcing in biotechnology through acquisition versus alliance: A KBV approach

Knowledge sourcing is important for firms, especially in fast-paced industries. However, few studies explore the effects of knowledge-based predictors on the comparative choice of employing acquisitions versus alliances for sourcing external knowledge. This study extends the limited existing research on this topic. It simultaneously examines the effects of knowledge domain attributes, seeker and source experience-based knowledge, and dyad knowledge similarity and digestibility on whether a firm chooses an acquisition or alliance when sourcing external knowledge. Data is comprised of 209 research-driven acquisitions and alliances of biotechnology firms based in North America. Our findings reveal that external knowledge sourcing through acquisition is more likely when the knowledge domain is more complex and valuable. Acquisition is also preferred when the seeker has greater acquisition experience and when the source has accumulated a moderate level of alliance experience. Alliance, in contrast, is the chosen mode for accessing external knowledge when the knowledge is high in specificity and when the seeker has prior alliance experience. In addition, increasing similarity and digestibility of the dyad's knowledge bases strengthen the relationship between knowledge value and the probability of acquisition versus alliance. These results extend understanding of how firms decide to augment their knowledge resources in a knowledge-intensive industry. They also demonstrate that a multilevel KBV approach emphasizing knowledge characteristics uncovers important predictors of strategy and structure in research-driven organizations.     

Online vs. offline course evaluation revisited: testing the invariance of a course evaluation questionnaire using a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis framework

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - Survey-based formats of assessing teaching quality in higher education are widely used and will likely continue to be used by higher...     

Effects of tapering on physical match activities in professional soccer players

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to examine: (i) the effect of decreasing training load (TL) during taper weeks on physical match activities in professional soccer players, and (ii) to disclose the relationship between weekly TL and physical match activities. Rating of perceived exertion was collected after each training session and match to quantify the TL in 19 professional players over 17 standard and 7 taper weeks during the season. Physical match activities were quantified by a computerised match analysis system and compared between standard training and taper weeks. Compared to standard weeks, the duration and frequency of training sessions during the taper weeks decreased (?21.7% and ?18.8%, respectively; P < 0.01) with no change in intensity (?4.8%; P = 0.09). Consequently, the weekly TL decreased during the taper weeks (?25.5%; P < 0.01). Increases in distance covered by intense running (+15.1%; P < 0.05), high-intensity running (HIR) (+15.7%; P < 0.01), number of sprints (+17.8%; P < 0.05) and number of high-speed runs (+15.7%; P < 0.05) were observed during the seven matches played after the taper weeks. High relationships were observed between TL and HIR distance covered, number of HIR and number of sprints (r = ?0.53; r = ?0.55; r = ?0.65, respectively; P < 0.01). Decreasing TL during taper weeks by reducing training duration and frequency but maintaining intensity was associated with an increase in physical activities during matches. However, it needs to be determined whether tapering or other match factors led to the changes in match activity.     

Cognitive Complexity and Attentional Control in the Bilingual Mind

In the analysis and control framework, Bialystok identifies analysis (representation) and control (selective attention) as components of language processing and has shown that one of these, control, develops earlier in bilingual children than in comparable monolinguals. In the theory of cognitive complexity and control (CCC), Zelazo and Frye argue that preschool children lack the conscious representation and executive functioning needed to solve problems based on conflicting rules. The present study investigates whether the bilingual advantage in control can be found in a nonverbal task, the dimensional change card sort, used by Zelazo and Frye to assess CCC. This problem contains misleading information characteristic of high-control tasks but minimal demands for analysis. Sixty preschool children, half of whom were bilingual, were divided into a group of younger ( M = 4,2) and older ( M = 5,5) children. All the children were given a test of English proficiency (PPVT-R) and working memory (Visually-Cued Recall Task) to assure comparability of the groups and then administered the dimensional change card sort task and the moving word task. The bilingual children were more advanced than the monolinguals in the solving of experimental problems requiring high levels of control. These results demonstrate the role of attentional control in both these tasks, extends our knowledge about the cognitive development of bilingual children, and provides a means of relating developmental proposals articulated in two different theoretical frameworks, namely, CCC and analysis-control.