Only one way to skin a cat? Heterogeneity and equifinality in European national innovation systems

One of the most significant results of the qualitative literature on national systems of innovation (NSIs) is that different systemic arrangements (i.e. configurations of actors and institutions) can deliver similar levels of innovative performance. Using factor analysis on a novel dataset of 29 quantitative indicators of innovative activities we provide an empirical characterization of the structure of European NSIs over the last ten years. Our results cast doubt on the empirical significance of the “equifinality” of heterogeneous systemic arrangements in the context of NSI. Innovation systems show inherent complexity, which leads to a high level of complementarity among their constituent components and configuration. This result implies that successful innovation policies should be systemic, leaving little flexibility in policy design and scope.     

Committing to vaccine R&D: a global science policy priority

The amount of vaccine R&D performed, especially that geared towards health issues affecting the developing world, is relatively modest. Despite immunisation representing the most effective tool for achieving disease eradication, and the general consensus being optimistic about the development of a vaccine capable of fighting AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, neither private nor public entities are investing sufficiently in the field. Reasons can be associated both with a lack of market incentives as well as with the low priority that these diseases are given on Western political agendas. However, seen through a “Global Public Good” lens, it appears to be in the interest of high-income countries, and their governments in particular, to invest public resources – financial and infra-structural – in vaccine R&D for global pandemics. The paper suggests managing international cooperation through the creation of a global fund. It discusses a number of proposals put forward in the existing literature and offers a range of policy options.     

Student perceptions of personalised learning: development and validation of a questionnaire with regional secondary students

This project sought to evaluate regional students’ perceptions of their readiness to learn, assessment processes, engagement, extent to which their learning is personalised and to relate these to academic efficacy, academic achievement, and student well-being. It also examined teachers’ perceptions of students’ readiness to learn, the assessment process, engagement, and the extent to which students’ learning is personalised. The sample involved students in years 7–10 from six Victorian secondary schools. An instrument Personalised Learning Environment Questionnaire (PLQ) was developed to measure students’ perceptions of the factors effecting the implementation of Personalised Learning Plans (PLPs). It employed the latest scales to assess a range of PLP indicator variables, with all scales modified for use in an Australian context, and the total number of items kept to a minimum. Only scales more sensitive to PLPs were used to minimise the length of the instrument. There were three outcome variables: academic efficacy, academic achievement, and student well-being. The PLPs were assessed through scales that assess several contributing, distinct dimensions: selfdirected learning readiness, personal achievement, goal orientation, learning environment, personalised teaching and learning initiatives, curriculum entitlement and choice, and perceptions of assessment for learning. The trail PLQ was administered to 220 students, resulting in a 19 scale questionnaire with three or four items per scale. This paper reveals good data to model fit for the majority of items and each scale had good reliability. The paper describes the analytic techniques and results, how the instrument was refined and identifies common and uncommon student perceptions based on a post hoc analysis. The main study consisted of 2,407 students from four schools in the Bendigo Education Plan. They responded to this refined 19 scale version of the PLQ that was developed from the trial PLQ. All scales had satisfactory internal consistency reliability.     

An evaluation study of youth participation in youth work: a case study in Southern Italy

In this paper an evaluation study of a public programme financing a regional network of 157 youth centres in the South of Italy is presented. A theory-based evaluation model was adopted to explore the causal links between different types of participation experience. Evaluation questions focused on three main issues are: the perception of empowerment of the team during the management of the centres, the empowering effect of participation in the organization of the youth centres and the decision-making abilities of the young people involved. Following an exploratory study, an on-line structured questionnaire was administered to all centres. New youth centres appear as striving to become sustainable enterprises. However, there is widespread difficulty in terms of integrating day-to-day management with sustainability strategies. Such difficulty appears less pronounced when project leaders participated in the design of the centres together with young people. Results thus confirm participation in the design phase as an empowering experience. This study warns, however, against a number of unwanted effects arising from participation. Indeed, participation processes represented a form of decorative consultation in half of the cases. Empirical evidence therefore suggests further research to focus on the creation of stable participation frameworks inside centres, avoiding the risk of participation processes void of any real effect on decision-making.     

Anti-school attitudes,school culture and friendship networks

This article explores the relationship between educational outcomes and anti-school attitudes at different levels of social organization in schools. Data were collected in St. Petersburg, Russia (104 schools, 7300 students) and analyzed using multi-level regression models that included three levels: individual, clique of friends and school. A clique is defined as a tight group of friends in a school class; we used social network analysis software Kliquefinder for clique identification. We demonstrate that friends’ attitudes are strongly related to the educational outcomes of a student (net of person’s individual attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics). In contrast, school-level effects disappear in the multi-level model when individual characteristics are included. The results of the study clearly demonstrate that the socio-economic and curricular differentiation of schools does not always lead to the polarization of ‘school academic cultures’. A school social environment is sufficiently heterogeneous, and different value systems in small peer groups may coexist.