Value orientations and action conflicts in students’ everyday life: An interview study

The assumption that today’s German students are able to successfully combine synthesis achievement values and well-being values appears to be overly optimistic when regarded from the perspective of motivational psychology. The results of a qualitative-quantitative interview study with 25 students indicate that achievement and well-being values may come into conflict in everyday life. Incentives for achievement and well-being rarely co-occur in the same action domains. Whereas the school context is dominated by achievement incentives, leisure time is dominated by well-being incentives. Since both achievement and well-being are appreciated by most students, they should be prone to experience frequent everyday action conflicts. The motivational characteristics of postdecisional action conflicts are described on the phenomenal level and their possible impairing effects for learning processes are pointed out. Finally, alternative forms of value synthesis, which might be realized more successfully, are discussed.     

How can history of science matter to scientists?

History of science has developed into a methodologically diverse discipline, adding greatly to our understanding of the interplay between science, society, and culture. Along the way, one original impetus for the then newly emerging discipline--what George Sarton called the perspective "from the point of view of the scientist"--dropped out of fashion. This essay shows, by means of several examples, that reclaiming this interaction between science and history of science yields interesting perspectives and new insights for both science and history of science. The authors consequently suggest that historians of science also adopt this perspective as part of their methodological repertoire.     

Rechtsfragen zur Studienbeitragspflicht an Universitäten

Die Neuregelung der Studienbeitragspflicht durch die Novelle zum Universitätsgesetz 2002 aus 2008 und die aus dem Jahr 2009 stammende Änderung der Studienbeitragsverordnung 2004 wirft eine Reihe offener Rechtsfragen auf. Die auf eine Begünstigung gegenüber der bisherigen Rechtslage angelegten Regelungen lassen in mehrfacher Hinsicht die erforderliche Eindeutigkeit vermissen und entbehren in ihrem Zusammenspiel unter sich und mit anderen diesbezüglich belangvollen Regelungen einer entsprechenden Regelungsharmonie. Sie machen dadurch mitunter diffizile interpretative Erwägungen erforderlich. Diese Umstände erschweren die Anwendung und damit die praktische Umsetzung der vom Gesetzgeber intendierten finanziellen Erleichterung gegenüber den Studierenden.     

The relationship of value orientations,self-control,frequency of school–leisure conflicts,and life-balance in adolescence

The aim of this self-report study is to analyze proposed interrelations between value orientations, self-control, frequency of school–leisure conflicts, and life-balance in adolescence. Life-balance is defined as satisfying time investment in different life areas. The tested model posits that self-control is negatively related to conflict frequency and that the latter is negatively related to life-balance. Achievement and well-being value orientations, in turn, should be connected to the degree of self-control and the frequency of goal conflicts. In the study, 817 German 8th-graders with a mean age of 13.4 years participated. Results from structural equation modeling supported the proposed model. The results suggest that fostering self-control can be a promising approach to decrease the frequency of goal conflicts, and thus increase students' experience of life-balance.     

Rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen für die Gestaltung universit?rer Curricula

Die bereits im Zuge der Autonomie-St?rkung der Universit?ten durch das UOG 1993 im Rahmen der Erlassung des UniStG 1997 vorgenommene Aufwertung der Selbstregelungskompetenzen der Universit?ten bei der Gestaltung des Studienrechts, findet in der Fassung der studienrechtlichen Vorgaben des UnivG 2002 seine konsequente Fortsetzung. Diese Ausweitung der Selbstregelungskompetenzen geht im rechtsstaatlichen Sinne typischerweise (als Gegengewicht) mit besonderen Anforderungen an Rechtsschutz und Rechtssicherheit einher. Insofern hat der universit?re Verordnungsgeber auch auf die in den Gesetzesgrundlagen zum Ausdruck kommenden Wertungen und Grunds?tze eingehend Bedacht zu nehmen.     

A visual aid for teaching the Mann–Whitney U formula

A visual aid for teaching the formula for the Mann–Whitney U statistic is proposed, inspired by ‘proof without words’, a didactic exercise from the mathematics literature that uses a visual approach to justify mathematical statements, including formulas and theorems.     

Dealing with forward and backward jumps in workflow management systems

Workflow management systems (WfMS) offer a promising technology for the realization of process-centered application systems. A deficiency of existing WfMS is their inadequate support for dealing with exceptional deviations from the standard procedure. In the ADEPT project, therefore, we have developed advanced concepts for workflow modeling and execution, which aim at the increase of flexibility in WfMS. On the one hand we allow workflow designers to model exceptional execution paths already at buildtime provided that these deviations are known in advance. On the other hand authorized users may dynamically deviate from the pre-modeled workflow at runtime as well in order to deal with unforeseen events. In this paper, we focus on forward and backward jumps needed in this context. We describe sophisticated modeling concepts for capturing deviations in workflow models already at buildtime, and we show how forward and backward jumps (of different semantics) can be correctly applied in an ad-hoc manner during runtime as well. We work out basic requirements, facilities, and limitations arising in this context. Our experiences with applications from different domains have shown that the developed concepts will form a key part of process flexibility in process-centered information systems.