The value of literacy practices

The concepts of literacy events and practices have received considerable attention in educational research and policy. In comparison, the question of value, that is, ‘which literacy practices do people most value?’ has been neglected. With the current trend of cross-cultural adult literacy assessment, it is increasingly important to recognise locally valued literacy practices. In this paper we argue that measuring preferences and weighting of literacy practices provides an empirical and democratic basis for decisions in literacy assessment and curriculum development and could inform rapid educational adaptation to changes in the literacy environment. The paper examines the methodological basis for investigating literacy values and its potential to inform cross-cultural literacy assessments. The argument is illustrated with primary data from Mozambique. The correlation between individual values and respondents’ socio-economic and demographic characteristics is explored.     

Production technologies and financial performance: The effect of uneven diffusion among competitors

We explore the impact of a production technology on financial performance from the perspectives of technology diffusion and competitive strategy theory. We analyse how diffusion at firm and market levels influences the returns from the technology. We suggest that firm heterogeneity in the level of technology use leads to competitive advantages for relatively intensive adopters. We empirically test our propositions through the analysis of the diffusion of the Automated Teller Machine among Spanish savings banks between 1986 and 2004. Our results show that it is not the absolute but the relative level of use that drives the impact of the technology on profitability. Furthermore, as the technology is more intensively deployed in the market, the profitability of every firm decreases. Interestingly, in our empirical setting, this negative effect eventually leads to an aggregate negative impact on the profitability of the savings banks.     

The Pendulum: From Constrained Fall to the Concept of Potential

Kuhn underlined the relevance of Galileo’s gestalt switch in the interpretation of a swinging body from constrained fall to time metre. But the new interpretation did not eliminate the older one. The constrained fall, both in the motion of pendulums and along inclined planes, led Galileo to the law of free fall. Experimenting with physical pendulums and assuming the impossibility of perpetual motion Huygens obtained a law of conservation of vis viva at specific positions, beautifully commented by Mach. Daniel Bernoulli generalised Huygens results introducing the concept of potential and the related independence of the ‘work’ done from the trajectories (paths) followed: vis viva conservation at specific positions is now linked with the potential. Feynman’s modern way of teaching the subject shows striking similarities with Bernoulli’s approach. A number of animations and simulations can help to visualise and teach some of the pendulum’s interpretations related to what we now see as instances of energy conservation.     

Dropouts in Swiss vocational education and the effect of training companies’ trainee selection methods

In the Swiss vocational education system, which is often called a ‘Dual System’, trainees enter into an apprenticeship contract with a training company. On average, 25% of those contracts are terminated prematurely (PCT). This article examines the relationship between training companies’ selection methods and PCTs. The investigation is based on a quantitative study with a cross-sectional design and on qualitative interviews. Trainers and operations managers (N = 335) of Swiss training companies for cooks and painters were surveyed. Half of the companies have been affected by a PCT in the past and the other half have not. The findings indicate that a certain amount of the explained variance between companies with and without reported PCTs can be explained by the companies’ selection process. Companies that were affected by a PCT use a job interview and a company visit significantly less often in their selection process than companies without a PCT.     

The One-minute Paper as a Catalyst for Change in Online Pedagogy

ABSTRACT

Online/virtual educators face challenges related not only to technology and pedagogy, but also to student assessment, which remains a critical function to reinforce. Brief assessment tools can be used by the instructor to tailor the learning experience, and where appropriate, to reinforce student-centered learning. In this qualitative study, we explored the use of a one-minute paper as a brief and consistent assessment tool in master’s level social work courses in research and advanced clinical practice with individuals courses. The coded segments of qualitative responses (# of coded segments n = 728) from 52 students were examined to explore common themes from the student’s experience. Discussion is offered on the use of this tool for brief and consistent assessment of knowledge gains in class, as well as the impact these themes may have for the intentional pedagogy for the facilitation of learning.     

The internationalization of inventive activity: A gravity model using patent data

This paper discusses the extent and the determinants of the internationalization of European inventive activity, between 1990 and 2005, using an innovative method to treat the information contained in the European Patent Office's Patstat database. We introduce a new set of indicators measuring internationalized patent applications that are fully coherent with the principle of fractional counting. The observed level of internationalization of inventive activities, while being rather low, has steadily increased over time.The amount of collaboration between actors residing in different countries is assessed by means of a gravity model. The amount of bilateral collaboration is positively affected by the presence of a common language, a common border and by more similar cultural characteristics. International collaboration is negatively affected by distance, with estimated elasticities that are significantly smaller than the ones that characterize international trade.     

Unusual coin from the Parabita hoard: combined use of surface and micro-analytical techniques for its characterisation

Out of the staters collection of the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto, during the full examination of about one hundred coins minted by the Greek colony of Taras between the V century BC and the III century BC, our attention has been devoted to a lead coin, which has been regarded for many years as a genuine silver coin. This artifact, entry number 13 in the inventory list for the Parabita hoard, has been studied with the combined use of surface and micro-analytical techniques (SEM, EDX, PIXE, XRD). The joint use of different analytical techniques allowed us to obtain information about the morphology, the structure and the chemical composition of the analysed coin, that revealed a lead core coated with a bi-layer of copper and silver.     

儿童参与体育的11项权利

参与体育是儿童获取知识、取得进步和快乐的来源,是丰富儿童生活的一个方式.儿童体育权利包括:参与体育的权利;拥有乐趣并像一个孩子那样玩耍的权利;从健康的环境中受益的权利;在体育中享有尊严的权利;被有能力的教练培训的权利;按照个人需要进行训练的权利;与其他同样有可能成功的孩子进行比较的权利;参加与之相适应的比赛的权利;参加体育活动时安全的权利;有休息时间的权利;不成为冠军的权利.     

Preservation of visual attention in older expert orienteers at rest and under physical effort

This study investigated the visual attention of older expert orienteers and older adults not practicing activities with high attentional and psychomotor demands, and considered whether prolonged practice of orienteering may counteract the age-related deterioration of visual attentional performance both at rest and under acute exercise. In two discriminative reaction time experiments, performed both at rest and under submaximal physical workload, visual attention was cued by means of spatial cues of different sizes followed, at different stimulus-onset asynchronies, by compound stimuli with local and global target features. Orienteers, as compared to nonathletes, showed a faster reaction speed and a complex pattern of attentional differences depending on the time constraints of the attentional task, the demands on endogenous attentional control, and the presence or absence of a concomitant effortful motor task. Results suggest that older expert orienteers have developed attentional skills that outweigh, at least at rest, the age-related deficits of visual attentional focusing.