How to prepare a talk

The concept of Contrastive Rhetoric was first articulated in 1966. In the intervening decade, a number of studies have been undertaken to test the basic assumption that the organization of paragraphs written in any language by individuals who are not native speakers of that language will be influenced by the rhetorical preferences of the native language. In retrospect, some dozen studies by a variety of scholars are reviewed. Since the primary assumption appears to have survived analysis, a preliminary taxonomy of syntactic devices operating on inter‐sentence transitions and a framework for the analysis of discourse blocs are developed.     

Teachers’ Perceptions of their Mentoring Role in Three Different Clinical Settings: Student Teaching,Early Field Experiences,and Entry Year Teaching

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in mentoring across three different clinical settings: student teaching, early field experiences, and entry year teachers. Eighteen teachers with mentoring experience in all three clinical settings were selected and interviewed. The teachers’ expectations for teacher development, mentoring relationships, and mentoring strategies differed across all three clinical settings. In addition, their confidence, their relationship with mentees, and their mentoring strategies were influenced by two features of the clinical setting: (a) the amount of time for mentoring interactions, and (b) the expectations for the mentee. To improve mentoring, the authors recommend (a) lengthening clinical experiences, (b) providing support for creating positive relationships, and (c) providing professional development specific to each of the three clinical settings.     

The R&D-growth paradox arises in fast-growing sectors

Several notions of a R&D paradox can be found in the literature. In the Swedish Paradox version, the emphasis is normally on high and growing levels of business R&D connected to comparatively low GDP growth rates. This paper examines whether this pattern is consistent over time and, more importantly, which sectors drive the aggregate patterns. Based on an investigation of the entire Swedish economy 1985-2001, there is clear evidence that the paradox occurs only in fast-growing manufacturing and service sectors. Fast-growing sectors show an increasing gap between R&D and value-added growth, while the slow-growing sectors do not. This paradox is not interpreted as a sign of failure of the national innovation system, as the largest gap would then be for the slow-growing sectors, failing to transform R&D to economic growth. The gap between R&D and GDP is consistent with the idea of diminishing marginal returns to R&D investment in high-investing sectors. The evidence does not rule out, however, that rendering the innovation system more effective could yield better outcomes. As the findings of a gap are quite consistent over time, it seems fair to conclude that businesses have good reasons for their high R&D investments, despite not being on par with their production growth.     

Prenatal Maternal Stress and Child IQ

The evidence for negative influences of maternal stress during pregnancy on child cognition remains inconclusive. This study tested the association between maternal prenatal stress and child intelligence in 4,251 mother–child dyads from a multiethnic population-based cohort in the Netherlands. A latent factor of prenatal stress was constructed, and child IQ was tested at age 6 years. In Dutch and Caribbean participants, prenatal stress was not associated with child IQ after adjustment for maternal IQ and socioeconomic status. In other ethnicities no association was found; only in the Moroccan/Turkish group a small negative association between prenatal stress and child IQ was observed. These results suggest that prenatal stress does not predict child IQ, except in children from less acculturated minority groups.     

Barriers to learning online experienced by students with a mental health disability

Online education is widely regarded as increasing accessibility to higher education to individuals with disadvantage and disability, including those with a mental health disability. However, the learning challenges these students experience within the online learning environment are not well understood. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to better understand the barriers to learning that these students face in this environment. A qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with 12 students revealed three major learning barriers: (a) impact of impairment, (b) personal and situational circumstances, and (c) learning environment. These barriers were found to have wide-ranging consequences for the students’ ability to fully engage in study and their overall wellbeing. The findings lend insight into the low retention rates for this cohort of students and the learning barriers that need to be addressed by online education providers to better enhance the educational experience of these students.     

Of frogs and men: the origins of psychophysiological time experiments, 1850-1865

Towards the end of the 1840s, Hermann von Helmholtz began to investigate experimentally the propagation of stimuli within nerves. Helmholtz's experiments on animals and human subjects opened a research field that in the following decades was intensively explored by neurophysiologists and experimental psychologists. Helmholtz's pioneering investigations justify the central place he occupies in accounts of the history of modern psychophysiology. Studying the concrete experimental settings and their local contexts shows how deeply the work of scholars such as Helmholtz is embedded in the history of culture and technology. In particular, the rapidly growing technologies of electromagnetism, which gave rise to telegraphy and electric clocks, facilitated the time measurements of 19th-century physiologists and psychologists.