Promoting entrepreneurship education among university students: design and evaluation of an intervention programme / Fomento de la educación emprendedora entre el alumnado universitario: diseño y evaluación de un programa de intervención

For the consolidation of entrepreneurial education as a field of research, a number of challenges must be met, among them, a better connection between pedagogical objectives and the design of programmes, as well as greater methodological rigour in the evaluation of their impact. With this in mind, this paper analyses the results of an entrepreneurial education programme carried out with a group of students from a Spanish university, contrasting the results with a control group. The results indicate that, after this process, the participating students displayed greater entrepreneurial potential than the group of students that had not participated. However, this difference is due more to a loss of entrepreneurial intention in the group not participating in the programme than to an improvement in the participating students.     

University entrepreneurship in a developing country: The case of the P. Universidad Católica de Chile, 1985–2000

Privatization in higher education is usually understood either as the surge of private institutions or as universities’ growing reliance on private sources of funding or otherwise operating more like firms. Joining the growing literature on university entrepreneurship, this is a case study on the less examined problem of entrepreneurial universities in developing countries. In a period of roughly 15 years, the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile, founded in 1888, turned itself from a mostly teaching institution to a research-oriented university, responsible for one-fourth of the Chile’s mainstream scientific output and 40% of all Ph.D.s awarded nationally. Yet, public funding represents today only 17% of its revenues, down from almost 90% in 1972. How such academic development could have occurred as the State withdrew and the market took hold of Chilean higher education after the reforms introduced by the military rule of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990) is the theme of this work. Universidad Católica’s policies and strategies are described, and the factors contributing to its success, together with their limitations, identified. The case suggests that orientation to the market can be more a means for survival and growth under the pressure of privatization, than a result of a ‘Triple Helix’ strategy of universities, government and industry to generate innovation out of academic knowledge. Secondly, while in the industrialized world, higher education entrepreneurship is associated with knowledge production for economic development (‘Mode 2’), entrepreneurial universities in the context of developing countries may just be finding their way to the academic, disciplinary mode of research.     

Nullor网络一种新的拓扑分析方法

从节点导纳矩阵出发 ,定义了电压图、电流图 ,把节点导纳矩阵的代数余子式表示为电压图、电流图中完全树的树支导纳乘积之和     

Exploring the Functionality of Visual and Non-Visual Strategies in Solving Rotation Problems

This article deals with the solving of rotation problems, and shows that there is an alternative to using mental rotations or their encoding into verbal terms: namely using geometrical properties. The idea is consistent with the theory which distinguishes between visual and analytical individuals, but uses the construct strategies instead of the construct preferred processing mode. Moreover, contrary to many researchers who refer to this distinction, but who often use it to classify students, this researcher introduces a new parameter, namely the nature of the task. The article presents the analysis of the functionality and effectiveness of the different kind of strategies as a function of the task's characteristics. The research, dealing not with individual traits but with solving strategies, offers information that could be helpful for the improvement of geometry teaching.     

From communication to verbalization: Language practices in kindergarten

Most children attend kindergarten very early in western societies; in fact, they are inserted in different contexts of socialization (family, school and/or other day-care). In what are these contexts of socialization different for linguistic abilities that they contribute to develop? How can the young children adapt themselves to these differences? These questions are discussed considering theoretical interactionnist approaches, and some analyses of communication practices in french kindergarten. Perspectives are released for a discussion on a pedagogy of oral language with young children.     

Comparisons of observed process quality in early child care and education programs in five countries

In this cross-national study, observed process quality in preschool classrooms was compared across five countries—Austria (n = 37), Germany (n=103), Portugal (n=88), Spain (n=80), and the U.S.A. (n=390). Process quality was assessed using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) and the Caregiver Interaction Scale (CIS). Both instruments had comparable properties when used in the different countries. A MANOVA found overall ECERS differences between countries, with Austria and Germany scoring higher than Spain, and Austria higher than the U.S.A. CIS Sensitivity scale differences showed Austria and Spain with higher scores than the U.S.A. Tests of homogeneity of variance showed U.S.A. with the highest standard deviations. A discriminant analysis, using countries as groups and ECERS items as criterion variables, revealed differences between countries on two discriminant functions: Personalized Care and Availability and Use of Space and Play Materials. Results are discussed in terms of the early childhood traditions and infrastructures found in the five countries.     

Scientific discovery and topological transitions in collaboration networks

We analyze the advent and development of eight scientific fields from their inception to maturity and map the evolution of their networks of collaboration over time, measured in terms of co-authorship of scientific papers. We show that as a field develops it undergoes a topological transition in its collaboration structure between a small disconnected graph to a much larger network where a giant connected component of collaboration appears. As a result, the number of edges and nodes in the largest component undergoes a transition between a small fraction of the total to a majority of all occurrences. These results relate to many qualitative observations of the evolution of technology and discussions of the “structure of scientific revolutions”. We analyze this qualitative change in network topology in terms of several quantitative graph theoretical measures, such as density, diameter, and relative size of the network's largest component.To analyze examples of scientific discovery we built databases of scientific publications based on keyword and citation searches, for eight fields, spanning experimental and theoretical science, across areas as diverse as physics, biomedical sciences, and materials science. Each of the databases was vetted by field experts and is the result of a bibliometric search constructed to maximize coverage, while minimizing the occurrence of spurious records. In this way we built databases of publications and authors for superstring theory, cosmic strings and other topological defects, cosmological inflation, carbon nanotubes, quantum computing and computation, prions and scrapie, and H5N1 influenza. We also built a database for a classical example of “pathological” science, namely cold fusion. All these fields also vary in size and in their temporal patterns of development, with some showing explosive growth from an original identifiable discovery (e.g. carbon nanotubes) while others are characterized by a slow process of development (e.g. quantum computers and computation).We show that regardless of the detailed nature of their developmental paths, the process of scientific discovery and the rearrangement of the collaboration structure of emergent fields is characterized by a number of universal features, suggesting that the process of discovery and initial formation of a scientific field, characterized by the moments of discovery, invention and subsequent transition into “normal science” may be understood in general terms, as a process of cognitive and social unification out of many initially separate efforts. Pathological fields, seemingly, never undergo this transition, despite hundreds of publications and the involvement of many authors.     

Hierarchical Models of Social Competence in Preschool Children: A Multisite,Multinational Study

The generality of a multilevel factorial model of social competence (SC) for preschool children was tested in a 5‐group, multinational sample (N = 1,540) using confirmatory factor analysis. The model fits the observed data well, and tests constraining paths for measured variables to their respective first‐order factors across samples also fit well. Equivalence of measurement models was found at sample and sex within‐sample levels but not for age within sample. In 2 groups, teachers’ ratings were examined as correlates of SC indicators. Composites of SC indicators were significantly associated with both positive and negative child attributes from the teachers’ ratings. The findings contribute to understanding of both methodological and substantive issues concerning SC in young children.