Training proportionality through peer interaction

The study aimed at determining the effects of training based on peer interaction over practical problems of proportion with normal subjects aged from 8 to 12 years. Two experimental groups were assigned to two treatment conditions: (a) training in solving problems of proportionality with social interaction (T1), and (b) training in solving the same problems without social interaction (T2).Training groups included either 5 or 10 subjects who were heterogeneous with regard to their initial level of mastery of the concept of proportion. The results indicated that in group T1 the scores on proportionality improved significantly while group T2 and a control group did not. Thus, practice alone produced no change. The improvement on proportionality in T1 proved durable over a period of two months and generalized to a structurally related concept (probability). The variation in group size did not affect the extent of improvement. The number and duration of interactions within the group discussion over problems were not directly related to the amount of improvement. A detailed analysis of the pre- and post-test difference revealed that only 50% of the Ss in T1 improved substantially, and, in line with the Genevan view, improvement from training was found to follow the same sequence as normal development.     

The Seductive Power of an Innovation: Enrolling Non-conventional Actors in a Drip Irrigation Community in Morocco

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyze the motivations of non-conventional innovation actors to engage in innovation processes, how their involvement changed the technology and their own social-professional status, and to analyze their role in the diffusion of the innovation.

Design/methodology/approach: We studied the innovation process of drip irrigation in Morocco. We interviewed 35 farmers in two villages, selected to represent a diversity of farms, and observed their drip irrigation systems. We interviewed several local artisans and traders, and intermediaries about their social-professional pathway, using a checklist to understand their motivations and their involvement with drip irrigation.

Findings: We showed how a variety of non-conventional actors became involved in drip irrigation, leading to the progressive creation of an active inter-related socio-technical network involved in the sales, manufacturing, fitting, and use of drip irrigation systems. This network challenged an imported technology promoted by irrigation companies that targeted large-scale farmers, and transformed it into drip irrigation systems adapted to a wide range of situations and farmers, including small-scale farmers. The involvement of these actors led to reciprocal changes in the technology and in the socio-professional status of the intermediaries, hence accelerating the diffusion of the innovation.

Practical implications: Understanding the motivations of non-conventional innovation actors helps comprehend the multiple pathways of innovation processes, and the socio-professional pathways of innovation actors. It is worth considering integrating these actors in state programs and other planned innovation processes, as they are near to field realities and to innovation users, and are able to adapt a technology to local requirements.

Originality/value: The results of this study contribute to the scientific debate about the mutually beneficial alliance of non-conventional actors and technical innovations.     

Negotiation Games

This study analyzes the interpretive repertoires used by public relations (PR) advisors of Dutch politicians to describe their relations with talk show journalists. A qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews revealed that the dominant repertoires come from the realm of play. PR advisors downplay the power struggle to position politicians on talk shows as a competitive game while at the same time they legitimize their close relationships with journalists with another play metaphor, the rehearsed stage play. Moreover, comparing politicians’ appearances on talk shows with stage performances gives them the opportunity to brush aside the contradiction between their extensive pre-broadcast preparations and the authentic appearance they attempt to emulate. Studying the interpretive repertoires of advisors working in PR and how they fruitfully combine the elements of struggle and cooperation sheds light on the structures and strategies that define journalist–source relationships. It provides insights into how PR advisors perceive and enact their own role, which often goes unnoticed both in research and by the general public.     

Probabilistic relevance ranking for collaborative filtering

Collaborative filtering is concerned with making recommendations about items to users. Most formulations of the problem are specifically designed for predicting user ratings, assuming past data of explicit user ratings is available. However, in practice we may only have implicit evidence of user preference; and furthermore, a better view of the task is of generating a top-N list of items that the user is most likely to like. In this regard, we argue that collaborative filtering can be directly cast as a relevance ranking problem. We begin with the classic Probability Ranking Principle of information retrieval, proposing a probabilistic item ranking framework. In the framework, we derive two different ranking models, showing that despite their common origin, different factorizations reflect two distinctive ways to approach item ranking. For the model estimations, we limit our discussions to implicit user preference data, and adopt an approximation method introduced in the classic text retrieval model (i.e. the Okapi BM25 formula) to effectively decouple frequency counts and presence/absence counts in the preference data. Furthermore, we extend the basic formula by proposing the Bayesian inference to estimate the probability of relevance (and non-relevance), which largely alleviates the data sparsity problem. Apart from a theoretical contribution, our experiments on real data sets demonstrate that the proposed methods perform significantly better than other strong baselines.

Differential effects of instructional support on learning in simultation environments

This article investigates a complex Aptitude Treatment Interaction (ATI), of intelligence and metacognitive skill as aptitudes with structuredness of learning environment as treatment. A more structured learning environment is usually regarded as beneficial to learning in low intelligence students, whereas it may not affect or may even interfere with learning in high intelligence students. The overall analyses of four studies are presented, including a total of 99 subjects. High and low intelligence novices passed through either structured or unstructured simulation environments in the domains of heat theory, electricity, or statistics. Thinking-aloud protocols were analyzed in order to assess the metacognitive skillfulness of subjects. Several learning tests were administered, assessing both declarative and procedural domain knowledge. The results show that structuredness of learning environment did not affect learning in high intelligence subjects, irrespective of their level of metacognitive skillfulness. However, the structured learning environment yielded enhanced learning performances in low intelligence subjects with a low level of metacognitive skillfulness, while it interfered with learning in low intelligence subjects with a relatively high level of metacognitive skillfulness.     

Modular instruction in higher education: A review

The principles and purposes of modular instruction (MI), its advantages for both students and instructors, and a comparison between the conventional and modular approach are presented. Separate sections deal with implementation and management of MI and include a discussion of evaluation and cost. Several examples of modular formats in use at North American universities are described.Present evidence suggests that MI meets the needs of today's students more adequately than traditional instruction both with respect to the quality of learning and the content. However, certain problems may arise in implementing MI. These are presented from the perspective of the student, instructor, and administrator. Given its emphasis on individualized learning and its adaptability to large numbers of students, MI has emerged as one of the most promising alternatives in higher education today.     

The evaluation and improvement of teaching in higher education

Four procedures to evaluate teaching (by students, peers, video-recordings, and direct measurements of student learning) and three uses of the evaluation results (improving teaching, personnel decisions, course handbooks) are reviewed in the light of empirical evidence. Special emphasis is placed on the timing and validity of student ratings and the instruments used. Since none of the procedures appear sufficient in and by itself, a multiple indicator approach, especially for personnel decisions, would seem to be the most defensible one.While it is essential to take evidence of teaching effectiveness into account in considerations for tenure and promotion, faculty must also be given opportunities to become professionals as teachers. Higher education units, designed primarily for this purpose, appear to be effective as judged by their clients (the faculty they have served), but have failed to make an impact on the faculty as a whole. What is required now is an institutional commitment to quality instruction, i.e. a departmental policy on the evaluation of teaching and faculty development.Invited keynote address presented at the Third International Conference on Improving University Teaching, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, June 8–11, 1977. An annotated bibliography Evaluation des systèmes d'éducation supérieure produced by L. de Marchi in preparation for this address is available from the author.