Politico-economic interactions of German public performing arts institutions

Our paper analyzes the conduct of German public performing arts institutions in terms of non-market decision making or public choice. Apart from consumers of performing arts managers of performing arts institutions and public donors are main agents. A manager of a performing arts institution will not assume that the number of visitors is independent of his institution's programme or the ticket prices. By the same reasoning he will regard the amount of public subsidies not as exogenous, but dependent on his own policy. If future grants depend on present and past success (however defined), this will feed back into managerial decisions, along with expectations about demand. Data for the Federal Republic of Germany serve to empirically support the theoretical argument.     

Self-esteem and school performance

Self-esteem was found to have a moderate relationship with, but not a strong independent effect on, school achievement and behavior for a sample of 530 twelve-year-olds. From multiple correlation coefficients predicting school outcomes from measures of socioeconomic status, IQ, and self-esteem, it was concluded that much of the relationship between self-esteem and school performance for the general school population can best be explained as reflecting common underlying factors such as ability and background.     

Media Education in Primary Schools in Austria: Teaching Materials

Abstract

This article describes the questionnaire by which the Austrian Ministry of Education investigated the state of media education in primary schools, and briefly summarizes the results. It then describes the teaching materials that have been and are being produced.     

Technical analysis of a Central Asian wall painting detached from a Buddhist cave temple on the northern Silk Road

A great number of Central Asian wall paintings, archeological materials, architectural fragments, and textiles, as well as painting fragments on silk and paper, make up the so called Turfan Collection at the Asian Art Museum in Berlin. The largest part of the collection comes from the Kucha region, a very important cultural center in the third to ninth centuries. Between 1902 and 1914, four German expeditions traveled along the northern Silk Road. During these expeditions, wall paintings were detached from their original settings in Buddhist cave complexes. This paper reports a technical study of a wall painting, existing in eight fragments, from the Buddhist cave no. 40 (Ritterhöhle). Its original painted surface is soot blackened and largely illegible. Grünwedel, leader of the first and third expeditions, described the almost complete destruction of the rediscovered temple complex and evidence of fire damage. The aim of this case study is to identify the materials used for the wall paintings. Furthermore, soot deposits as well as materials from conservation interventions were of interest. Non-invasive analyses were preferred but a limited number of samples were taken to provide more precise information on the painting technique. By employing optical and scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, micro X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, and Raman spectroscopy, a layer sequence of earthen render, a ground layer made of gypsum, and a paint layer containing a variety of inorganic pigments were identified.     

Introduction to Usus,a Community Website on Library Usage,and a Discussion about COUNTER 4

Established in 2014, Usus (Latin for usage), supported by Counting Online Usage of NeTworked Electronic Resources (COUNTER), but editorially independent, is a community-run website designed to provide a space for librarians, consortia, publishers, aggregators, repository managers, and scholars to discuss all aspects of usage, including particular ways that use is measured. In this session, Usus Supervisory Board members provided an introduction to Usus, outlined the purpose of the community-run site, and discussed how librarians may utilize the site to submit ongoing and complex usage issues. In addition, the presenters engaged attendees in discussing specific e-resource usage issues they have encountered as well as report changes and additions in the recently released COUNTER Code of Practice 4.     

Working and Playing Together: Prediction of Preschool Social-Emotional Competence from Mother-Child Interaction

The impact of mother-child interaction on preschoolers' social-emotional competence was evaluated. Twenty-five girls and 23 boys (mean age = 44 mos) and their mothers were videotaped performing four play/teaching tasks. Preschool teachers completed the Baumrind Preschool Behavior Q-Sort and the Behar Problem Behavior Questionnaire. Mother-child interaction aggregates represented task orientation, positive emotion, and allowance of autonomy/reliance on mother. Results indicated that specific maternal interaction aggregates coherently predicted the children's Positive Social Behavior, Assertiveness, and Sadness in the preschool setting. Child aggregates were less effective predictors of teachers' ratings. Several gender differences in the prediction of social-emotional competence were found (e.g., maternal allowance of autonomy predicted girls' sadness, but boys' sadness was predicted by their own negative emotion). These findings' contributions to the parent-child literature are discussed.     

Facilitating small-group learning: A comparison of student and staff tutors' behavior

This study focused on students' observations of student and staff tutors' behavior during two academic courses, using a thirtynine-item rating scale. The study took place within an integrated problem-based law curriculum. Six major factors in tutors' behavior were identified. Differences between student and staff tutors' performance were investigated. The results showed that student tutors were better at understanding the nature of the problems students face in attempting to master the subject-matter. Student tutors were also more interested in students' daily lives, study experiences and personalities. In addition, student tutors referred to end-of-course examinations more frequently than staff tutors to direct student learning. Alternatively, staff tutors used their subject-matter expertise more often and displayed more authoritarian behavior than student tutors. No differences were found with respect to tutors' focus on cooperation among group members. The results are interpreted in terms of the nature of the knowledge and experiences of students and staff with regard to problem-based learning and its requirements.     

The influence of achievement motivation and chess-specific motivation on deliberate practice

Although the importance of high motivation to engage in deliberate practice has been acknowledged, no research has directly tested this hypothesis. Therefore, the present study examined this relation in adolescent elite chess players by means of a questionnaire. In addition, to provide an explanation for dropout among promising chess players, differences in motivation between persistent and dropout chess players were analyzed. Competitiveness and the will to excel proved to be predictors of investments in deliberate practice. Moreover, achievement motivation and chess-specific motivation differed to a certain extent between persisters and dropouts. Our results suggest that motivation to engage in deliberate practice not only contains elements of the will to improve performance, but also of the will to attain exceptional levels of performance.