The Economic Advantage of Being the “Voice of the Majority”

This article analyzes price competition in a duopolistic newspaper industry, where politically differentiated newspapers compete in 2 distinct markets: circulation and advertising. Assuming that 1 of the newspapers represents the “voice of the majority,” the theory of the circulation spiral is investigated and whether the interdependence between newspapers' demands in the circulation and advertising markets favors the majority's newspaper to the detriment of the minority's newspaper is investigated.     

Child Engagement in Inclusive Preschools: Contributions of Classroom Quality and Activity Setting

Preschool process quality and activity setting are considered important aspects influencing child engagement. As such, it is important to understand how educational settings can promote engagement, particularly for children with disabilities and/or at risk. This observational study describes process quality and activity setting in inclusive preschools, analyzing its predictive role for child engagement. Participants were 184 children attending 39 preschools. Three groups of children, nested within classrooms, were considered: with disabilities (n = 45), at risk (n = 59), typically developing (n = 80). Child Observation in Preschool assessed engagement and activity setting; Classroom Assessment Scoring System assessed quality of teacher–child interactions. Research Findings: Results from multilevel regressions show that classroom emotional support and organization and more time in free play were positively predicting child engagement, whereas more time in whole group was a negative predictor of engagement. Besides these main effects, an interaction effect between child developmental functioning and activity settings was found. For at-risk children, more time in whole-group activities had greater negative effects on child engagement. For children with disabilities, more time in free-play had greater positive effects on child engagement. Practice or Policy: Results contribute to inform teachers regarding the importance of individualizing interactions and planning activity settings to promote engagement and participation in inclusive preschools.     

Recognition as support for reasoning about horizontal motion: a further resource for school science?

Background: Even infants can recognize whether patterns of motion are or are not natural, yet an acknowledged challenge for science education is to promote adequate reasoning about such patterns. Since research indicates linkage between the conceptual bases of recognition and reasoning, it seems possible that recognition can be engaged to support reasoning.

Purpose: Noting the theoretical and practical significance of showing that recognition can support reasoning, the reported research aimed to examine the possibility in relation to horizontal motion.

Sample: The research was conducted with 167 children (mean age = 9.51 years) from Years 4, 5 and 6 of an English-medium school located in Lisbon, Portugal.

Design and methods: Individual pre-tests were administered to all participants to assess initial reasoning about the direction and speed with which rolling balls travel after collision. Reasoning was assessed in the sense of both predicting and explaining. Thereafter, about two-thirds of the sample worked with software that, via simulations of the incorrect patterns that were typically predicted (and comparison with simulations of correct patterns), engaged recognition as feedback on reasoning. The remaining children became an untutored control group. Replicating characteristic computer use in classrooms, half of the software sample worked as singletons with adult guidance available on request and half worked in pairs without the option of guidance. A few weeks later, all participants were post-tested following pre-test procedures.

Results: Pre- to post-test change amongst the children who worked with the software exceeded pre- to post-test change within the control group, and this was observed with both predictions and explanations. The differences were strongest amongst the children who worked as singletons, even though they seldom requested adult support.

Conclusions: Although issues remain to be addressed before the approach can be optimized, its viability as support for reasoning has been demonstrated, and this may have relevance beyond horizontal motion.     

The impact of polytechnic institutes on the local economy

Tertiary Education and Management - Higher education institutions and, particularly, polytechnic institutes in Portugal are, generally speaking, recognized as the key stakeholders in regional...     

Creating a responsive curriculum for postgraduates: lessons from a case in Ghana

A responsive curriculum addresses the changing needs of students, bridging the gap between universal knowledge and theories on one hand and contextual, continuously changing realities of everyday life and the world of work, on the other. Though several higher education institutions appreciate the value of making curriculum responsive, how to do this remains a challenge. This paper first identified unique attributes of responsive curriculum development based on literature and assessed their manifestation in the creation of a new Masters curriculum in natural resource and environmental governance in Ghana. The role of actors within and outside academia and its implications, were also investigated. The study was designed as participatory action research. Key process attributes identified include, among others, iteration, built-in learning within the curriculum development process, and the contribution of actors from outside academia to curriculum design and implementation. The study also shows the important role of the so-called champion of the process and the expert facilitators. The paper does not seek to provide a blue-print but rather provides a valuable example for future initiatives at creating curriculum that better responds to current needs of students.     

A case study of early career secondary teachers’ perceptions of their preparedness for teaching: lessons from Australia and Spain

This paper presents an international comparison of Australian and Spanish secondary teachers’ perceptions about the effectiveness of their pre-service education and their learning as in-service teachers. It aims to identify, firstly, the extent to which beginning teachers believe they are prepared for their careers through their teacher training and, secondly, what teachers have learned as practicing teachers. A qualitative case study was conducted to uncover whether similar issues raised by early career teachers were identified in different contexts. Data were collected through interviews with secondary teachers (N = 11) from Australia and Spain in their third year of full-time teaching. Findings suggest similar positive perceptions towards their practicum experiences, transition to beginning teachers and professional development. However, differences were found in their early career experiences regarding professional learning and their development of identity. Implications of the study are discussed by identifying strategies to improve pre-service education for secondary teachers.     

Migrants’ educational success through innovation: The case of the Hamburg bilingual schools

Although Germany has experienced net in-migration for the past five decades, this fact has only recently been officially acknowledged. Furthermore, Germany is marked by a general monolingual self-concept very much attached to the idea of a nation-state with one homogeneous language. However, in large urban areas of Germany about 35 per cent of the population has a migration background, as has almost every second child enrolling in primary school. Hence the country is marked by this dichotomy between a monolingual policy discourse and a multilingual society, manifested in everyday life and, as a consequence, in educational institutions. The fact is that this political attitude towards Germany’s own migration history and migrants has led to an educational gap between students with a migration background and their monolingual peers. In 2000, a project was started in Hamburg, aiming to overcome this educational gap and involving the creation of bilingual schools for some of the largest migrant languages. Bilingual classes were thus set up for the following language combinations: German-Portuguese, German-Italian, German-Spanish and German-Turkish, and were evaluated by the University of Hamburg. This paper reports on the model used and the specific school outcomes of the students attending these classes.