College students' ratings of student effort,student ability and teacher input as correlates of student performance on multiple-choice exams

In the class session following feedback regarding their scores on multiple-choice exams, undergraduate students in a large human development course rated the strength of possible contributors to their exam performance. Students rated items related to their personal effort in preparing for the exam (identified as student effort in the paper), their ability to perform well on the exams (identified as student ability), and teacher input that might have affected their exam performance. Students rated most student effort items higher than teacher input and student ability items. Notwithstanding, across all exams, ratings of student ability and teacher input correlated more strongly with exam performance than did student effort ratings. High and low performers on the exams differed significantly on ratings of student ability and teacher input, but were more similar on ratings of student effort.     

Exploring the relationships between collective efficacy,perceptions of success,and team attributions

Abstract

We examined the influence of collective efficacy and subjective interpretations of success/failure on team causal attributions. The participants were 71 male and female high school athletes on 20 track relay teams. Before a selected competition, participants completed a collective efficacy questionnaire. Then, immediately after their race, they were administered a modified version of the revised Causal Dimension Scale-II. A multi-level framework was employed to assess collective efficacy as an individually held perception and as a shared team belief. The individual perceptions of team success/failure significantly predicted the locus of causality and stability dimensions, whereas aggregated collective efficacy emerged as a significant team level predictor of average stability. Individual perceptions of collective efficacy were significantly related to team control and this relationship was moderated by the sex of the team. The findings indicate that collective efficacy beliefs held by athletes and teams prior to a competition influence the formation of post-competition team attributions in sport.     

Directed acyclic graphs: An under-utilized tool for child maltreatment research

BackgroundChild maltreatment research involves modeling complex relationships between multiple interrelated variables. Directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) are one tool child maltreatment researchers can use to think through relationships among the variables operative in a causal research question and to make decisions about the optimal analytic strategy to minimize potential sources of bias.ObjectiveThe purpose of this paper is to highlight the utility of DAGs for child maltreatment research and to provide a practical resource to facilitate and support the use of DAGs in child maltreatment research.ResultsWe first provide an overview of DAG terminology and concepts relevant to child maltreatment research. We describe DAG construction and define specific types of variables within the context of DAGs including confounders, mediators, and colliders, detailing the manner in which each type of variable can be used to inform study design and analysis. We then describe four specific scenarios in which DAGs may yield valuable insights for child maltreatment research: (1) identifying covariates to include in multivariable models to adjust for confounding; (2) identifying unintended effects of adjusting for a mediator; (3) identifying unintended effects of adjusting for multiple types of maltreatment; and (4) identifying potential selection bias in data specific to children involved in the child welfare system.ConclusionsOverall, DAGs have the potential to help strengthen and advance the child maltreatment research and practice agenda by increasing transparency about assumptions, illuminating potential sources of bias, and enhancing the interpretability of results for translation to evidence-based practice.     

Teaching Deductive Reasoning to Pre-service Teachers: Promises and Constraints

This paper broadly addresses the question of whether university students whose major does not require expertise in logic can improve their ability in deductive reasoning by taking an introductory course in logic. In particular, our study aims to evaluate a course in deductive logic offered by one of the authors in a department of elementary education. Two experiments were conducted by using a pretest-posttest design with an experimental and a control group as well as a follow-up test after 6 months on the experimental group. The results of the analyses showed that the course mainly succeeded in strengthening students’ general logical ability in the experimental group and these gains were retained 6 months later in the follow-up test. Promises and constraints of the study are discussed in the educational context. The names of the authors are listed alphabetically.     

四方衬底上BST薄膜的相图及介电特性

基于相变的热力学理论,数值模拟了单畴BST薄膜在四方结构衬底上的相图,并讨论了其介电特性．研究表明,与立方衬底上的相图相比较,该种情况下的BST相图较为复杂,并有新的铁电相出现．另外,其介电特性的分析表明在相界点部分极化强度分量是不连续的．     

Bulding ambidexterity through creativity mechanisms: Contextual drivers of innovation success

Do creativity methods consistently produce a significant net effect on innovation? Are the impacts of creativity methods related to operating context? Based on an ambidexterity perspective, we examine the effectiveness of different creativity methods on overcoming the tensions of the innovation process at individual and team levels. Drawing on European Union Community Innovation Survey (CIS2010) data collected from 23,537 firms, we estimate causal effects of creativity on innovation through a multivalued treatment effect methodology. Our results show that implementing ambidexterity in creativity methods increases the firm´s propensity to innovate and to introduce a market novelty. However, the effect on firm turnover is not always clear. Also, we detect that ambidexterity is more effective in firms that are large in size, have high levels of R&D investment and operate in manufacturing sectors. We discuss the implications of these findings for practice and for future research.     

Effects of instructional aids on the acquisition of dynamic decision-making skills

This study tested the effects of two instructional aids in a complex, dynamic environment, specifically, a business simulation. Participants studied (1) a “causal map,” which depicted key variables in an interconnected network, (2) a textual outline of the same relationships, or (3) no-aid. With the relevant aid still available, the participants ran the simulation three times. Then, the aid was removed, and the participants ran another three simulations. Both when the aid was available and later when removed, the group receiving the causal map gained a greater market share than the other two groups, which failed to differ. With respect to profits, however, a cross-over interaction appeared. When the aid was available, the causal map group showed lower profits than the other two groups, but, without the aid, the causal map group showed greater profits. The results are discussed in the context of information processing theories of instructional design.     

“图解法”在英语动词时态教学中的应用

英语动词有丰富的时态形式,而汉语没有。因此,它历来是中国学生,尤其是高职学生难以突破的瓶颈。为此,怎样教会学生正确区别和熟练运用常用的英语时态,显得尤为重要。《"图解法"在英语动词时态教学中的应用》一文通过学生乐于接受的"图解法",分析了容易混淆的常用动词时态的主要用法和区别,使抽象、复杂、枯燥的英语动词时态变得直观、形象、简单,能很好地帮助高职学生更容易理解、比较英语各种时态的内在联系和区别,及时掌握动词各种时态的用法,提高英语学习效果。     

技术引进与我国工业技术进步关系研究

国内学术界对我国改革开放以来利用外资引进技术对促进工业技术的实际效果究竟如何看法很不一致。本运用Granger因果关系分析法（Causal Relationship Test)从实践角度验证了技术引进是我国工业技术进步的重要原因，由此推论，近期我们仍应十分重视技术引进对促进我国工业技术进步的作用，本运用Engle-Granger协整关系检验法（Cointegration Relationship Test)验证我国技术引进与工业技术进步之间是否存在长期的共同发展趋势，结论是否定的。因此，就长期而论，我们不应将技术进步过多寄希望于从国外引进技术，而应走从技术转移到技术创新之路。     

Impact of simulator-based instruction on diagramming in geometrical optics by introductory physics students

We examine the conceptual development resulting from an instructional experiment with an interactive learning environment in geometrical optics for introductory high school physics. How did teaching-learning processes come to change the ways in which students depicted various everyday optical situations in paper and pencil graphical representations? We view conceptual development as a process resulting in part from increasingly aligning one's practices to a target community by means of participating in a community of practice that uses the target concepts. For formal science learning, this participation requires changes in concepts, epistemological attitude, and in the development and use of representational tools, including diagrams and technical language, as a means of communication. Results of our instructional experiment indicated that students went through major conceptual developments as reflected in the diagrams they constructed and supported by other representational tools and as judged in terms of several perspectives: in identifying the formation of shadows and images, in recognizing the eye as a participating factpr in the optical system, and in changing the types of justifications they provided in their optical reasoning from presuppositional to causal.