Stimulating Prewriting Skills with the Help of Pictorial Images

Increasingly, children who start school have already acquired basic reading and writing skills provided by their parents or preschool teachers. However, even if we choose to accept the fact that by teaching preschool children how to read and write parents wish to help them integrate successfully into the school environment and methods of work, we still need to emphasize that certain activities are not in balance with the needs, abilities, and potentials of a preschool child. At the same time some other possibilities are not being used enough (e.g., visual art). The present research introduces this aspect and presents training prewriting skills based on visual art activities given that visual art represents one of the primary media that every child spontaneously uses in his or her preschool years.     

Personality traits as a predictor of academic achievement in adolescents

The study examined the predictive value of adolescents’ personality trait ratings by different groups of informants in explaining academic achievement [grade point average (GPA)] while controlling for students’ sex and their mothers’ education. The Inventory of Child/Adolescent Individual Differences was employed as a measure of students’ personality traits at the end of elementary schooling (mean age = 14.7 years) and two years later when the participants attended secondary schools. The trait ratings were obtained through self‐, maternal and peer reports at both measurement occasions. They explained substantial portions of unique variance in the students’ GPA concurrently, and over time. Ratings by each of the three groups of informants had an incremental validity over one another in predicting school grades. Among personality variables, conscientiousness and low extraversion were consistently predictive of GPA.     

Negative school factors and their influence on math and science achievement in TIMSS 2003

The aim of the present study was to conduct an analysis of TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) 2003 database and to determine how negative school factors, such as aggression, are associated to the mathematical and science achievement of students. The analyses were conducted separately for national and international data. National analyses for Slovenia show significant associations between math and science achievement and the experience of aggressive behaviour. Students who experienced aggressive behaviour scored lower in math and science, both in the fourth and in the eighth grade. The results of the regression analysis show that negative factors, such as aggressive behaviour, are good predictors of educational achievement in Slovenia. International analyses for the selected countries (high‐ and low‐achieving countries from the whole TIMSS population) confirm that this type of finding is culturally impartial as well as valid for the level of achievement both in math and in science.     

Decentralising the patent system

Modern patent systems are slow, inefficient, expensive, and may result in outcomes that actively harm technological progress. This paper proposes a substantive re-think of these systems and lays a foundation upon which practical solutions can be built. Many solutions proposed in the past, such as prior-art bounties, outsourced examination, and dynamic fee setting, have gone unheeded due to the cost of administering them and the rigidity of the patent system. We explore how distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) enable these major changes by altering the way stakeholders are able to interact with the patent records system. We find that transitioning to a DLT-based patent records system can enable many previously suggested improvements to current patent systems in a flexible, scalable, and transparent manner. The case for such a transition is strengthened when jointly considering the complex but common roots of problems facing modern patent systems, rather than a balkanised set of technical solutions to address each issue independently. Noting that a DLT-based system is not a panacea, we also provide comment on the political, legal, and organisational challenges that must be overcome for such changes to be implemented at scale.     

第四届外国最佳邮票评选活动圆满结束

2005年12月9日，第四届外国最佳邮票评选活动颁奖大会暨参评国邮票展览在北京中国人民对外友好协会礼堂举行。主办单位中国人民对外友好协会、中华全国集邮联合会、国家邮政局邮票印制局、《中华世界邮票目录》编委会的负责人陈昊苏、盛名环、许孔让、成雨林，协办单位北京市集邮协会、《集邮博览》《上海集邮》《天津集邮》《集邮报》《收藏》杂志的代表，参展国驻华使馆代表以及集邮界，文化界、新闻界的代表共150余人出席了颁奖活动。     

以藏鉴史 存异归真——审视“文革”收藏品

“文革”收藏品的历史意义 1966-1976年，无产阶级文化大革命（以下简称“文革”）在中国右时10年，成为中华民族一场史无前例的浩劫。“文革”一经发动，全国立即陷入大动乱，从一开始的破“四旧”，到后 来的从中央各部门到地方各级党政部门以至各行各业的“造反派”全面夺权，“打倒一切”的无政府主义狂潮蔓延，使全国陷于空前的混乱之中。实践证明，“文革”是一场由领导者错误发动，被反革命集团利用，给党、国家和各族人民带来严重灾难的内乱，必须彻底否定。     

NEW LAW ON HIGHER EDUCATION IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

The Federal Assembly of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic approved, on 10 April 1980, the new law (Nr.39/80) on higher education. This law was under preparation nearly three years by the Czech and Slovak ministries of education and representatives of universities and other institutes of higher education as we'll as experts in charge of economic and social development. Starting from 1 September 1980 it will replace the previous law on higher education (Nr. 19/66) that has been in effect since 1966.

The following article, written for “Higher Education in Europe” by Professor Jiri M#akeri?ka, Director of the Research Institute on Engineering Studies in Prague, presents the main elements of this new law.     

Information and communication: An outline of a possible general theory of sign information

All live systems acquire and use knowledge to ensure appropriate efficiency in the mutual intercourse with the surrounding environment. Knowledge can be communicated only when the subject's internal model of the object of reality is objectified by means of a certain set of physical signs. Such an externalized model, a communicate, is to be accepted, adequately understood and evaluated by other relevant live systems. The information value of a communicate is therefore a function not only of the communicate itself but of the needs, aims, expectations and possibilities of relevant live systems as well. The information value of the same communicate can vary within a set of those systems. The determination of regularities in the relations between the information value of communicates, their content similarity and distinctive features of live systems producing and using them is a problem for experimental and empirical studies.     

Freizeitgestaltung der Schüler Höherer Lehranstalten in Slowenien/Jugoslawien (Fortsetzung)

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