bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Affective variables, learning approaches and academic achievement: a causal modelling investigation with Hong Kong tertiary students
Authors: Drew Po Yin , Watkins David 
Published: May 2011

Background. Academic learning outcomes are believed to be influenced by a complex system that involves the interaction of student personality characteristics and learning processes. Yet to date there have been few studies, particularly in a non‐western culture, which have examined the interrelationships between these variables and their causal effects on achievement outcomes.Aims. This study aims to investigate the interrelationships of affective variables, learning approaches and academic achievement. It was hypothesised that academic causal attributions and academic self‐concept affected the learning approaches the students adopted and subsequently influenced achievement outcomes.Sample. The participants were 162 male and female Hong Kong Chinese university students who enrolled in first year full‐time Nursing, Radiography, and Language and Communication courses. Their average age was 20 years.Methods. Measures of academic causal attributions, academic self‐concept, learning approaches and academic achievement were obtained. Structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques were used to test the relationships among the variables.Results. It was shown that as predicted, both academic causal attributions and academic self‐concept influenced academic achievement indirectly via students' learning approaches. Locus of control was significantly and negatively related to the surface approach to studying while academic self‐concept had a positive significant influence on the deep approach. Both the surface and the deep approaches to studying showed significant direct effects on academic achievement.Conclusions. The findings supported the theoretical notion that personality variables influence students' learning processes and subsequently their academic achievement. The findings also lend support to attributional retraining, self‐concept enhancement interventions and development of self‐regulated learning strategies to improve different aspects of student learning.
Scottish and Australian teacher stress and strain: a comparative study
Authors: Pithers R.T. , Soden Rebecca 
Published: May 2011

Background. There is a widespread belief that teacher stress is a serious problem with obvious implications for teachers' physical and psychological health status as well as performance. There is much published research about teacher stress, although not about cultural or national group comparisons.Aim. This study examines the occupational stress, strain and personal coping resources of a comparative group of Scottish and Australian vocational teachers.Sample. Three hundred and thirty two Scottish and Australian vocational and further education teachers.Method. A standardised test, the Occupational Stress Inventory, was used to gather the data.Results and Conclusions. Overall it was found that stress and strain similarities between the two national groups far outweighed the differences. For instance, there were no between‐group differences in strain levels, which were found to be at ‘average’ levels for both groups. Nevertheless, for both groups of teachers, role overload appeared to be a strong source of occupational stress.
Willcoxson and Prosser's factor analyses on Kolb's (1985) LSI data: reflections and re‐analyses
Authors: Yahya Ibramsha 
Published: May 2011

Background. Willcoxson & Prosser's (1996) factor analyses provide partial evidence for the existence of Kolb's (1985) two bipolar dimensions while their correlation analysis provides complete evidence.Aims. Based on this discrepancy, coupled with past research evidence, the present writer aims to clarify some problems in the factor analyses conducted by Willcoxson and Prosser by re‐analysing the correlation matrix.Methods. The present re‐analyses investigated both the two‐ and three‐factor solutions.Results. The two‐factor solution was found to be preferable.Conclusions. In all, the factor analysis, appropriately conducted, provides strong and complete evidence for the validity of Kolb's two bipolar dimensions, not just partial evidence as found out by Willcoxson and Prosser.
Paired reading: effects of a parent involvement programme in a disadvantaged community in South Africa
Authors: Overett Jennifer , Donald David 
Published: May 2011

Background. The study was conducted in an educationally disadvantaged South African community where the effectiveness of a paired reading parent involvement programme, which stressed interaction around reading as a means of mediating meaning, was evaluated.Aims. The research aimed to evaluate whether reading accuracy, comprehension and attitude were promoted through involving parents and other family members as mediators in a process of paired reading. Further, it aimed to elucidate interactive ecosystemic effects across family, school and community levels.Samples. Two complete grade four classes (29 and 32 children respectively) served as comparison groups (average age: 9 years 7 months).Methods. To test the significance of the improvement in reading accuracy and comprehension (Neale Analysis of Reading Ability: Neale, 1966) and attitude (Elementary Reading Attitude Survey: McKenna & Kear, 1990) for the experimental group relative to the control, one‐tailed t‐tests for independent samples on the respective pre‐test/post‐test difference scores were applied.Results. Statistically significant improvements in reading accuracy and comprehension, as well as reading attitude and involvement, were demonstrated. A broad ecosystemic analysis suggested that positive relationships between children and significant others in the family were nurtured and other children in the family were benefiting. Interactions between family and school, and school and the local community library, were also enhanced.Conclusions. The study emphasises the importance of developing mediation insights and skills in parent involvement programmes, and the place of ecosystemic analysis in understanding the social dynamics involved in such programmes.
Third graders' acquisition of knowledge of banking: restructuring or accretion?
Authors: Berti Anna Emilia , Monaci Maria Grazia 
Published: May 2011

Background. Some scholars maintain that similar processes intervene in children's cognitive development and in the history of science. According to Carey (1985), radical conceptual restructurings taking place during ontogenesis are the counterpart of scientific revolutions. Other authors object that individual cognitive development is only of an incremental type and shows no resemblance to scientific revolutions.Aims. The main aim was to investigate whether a radical restructuring in children's conceptions of banking can be produced in a short time through explicit teaching.Sample. A total of 58 third grade middle‐class children participated.Method. A curriculum on the notion of banking (involving deposits, loans, interest, and their relations) was implemented in a third grade class of 25 children. The curriculum lasted about 20 hours, distributed over two months. Two post‐tests were carried out — a week and four months later — on both the experimental and the control group who received no training.Results. Most children in the experimental group acquired and retained an understanding of banking. Only very limited progress was shown instead by the control group.Conclusion. The comparison between children's conceptions before and after teaching suggests that a conceptual restructuring had occurred. The way this result was achieved shows that restructuring should be viewed as the end product of changes of an incremental type rather than as a distinct process.
Pupil‐class determinants of aggressive and victim behaviour in pupils
Authors: Mooij Ton 
Published: May 2011

Background. Aggressive behaviour in pupils is expressed in, e.g., bullying, sexual harassment, and violence. Different kinds of variables could be relevant in explaining a pupil's aggressive or victim behaviour.Aims. To develop a multilevel theoretical and empirical explanation for different kinds of aggressive and victim behaviour displayed by pupils in a classroom and school environment.Samples. A national survey was carried out to identify different kinds of aggressive and victim behaviour displayed by pupils and to assess other variables related to pupils, classes, and schools. A total of 1998 pupils from 100 third and fourth year classes attending 71 different secondary schools took part in the research.Methods. Data were analysed by a series of secondary multilevel analyses using the MLA‐program.Results. Being a boy, being more extravert, being more disagreeable, coming across fewer teachers with positive teaching behaviour, and attending a lower type of secondary school, help explain why someone is a perpetrator as such. Being a boy, being more disagreeable, being more emotionally unstable, being open to new ideas, and seeing more teachers as being strict, function as explanatory pupil variables for victim behaviour. Other pupil level variables determine more specific aggressive and victim behaviour aspects. Various other class level and school level variables are relevant, too.Conclusions. Personal and environmental pupil variables are more important than class variables but class variables are in turn more important than school variables in explaining a pupil's aggressive and victim behaviour.
Learning styles: a cross‐sectional and longitudinal study in higher education
Authors: Busato Vittorio V. , Prins Frans J. , Elshout Jan J. , Hamaker Christiaan 
Published: May 2011

Background. In his dissertation, Jan Vermunt (1992) proposed four different learning styles: a meaning directed, a reproduction directed, an application directed and an undirected style.Aims. In a cross‐sectional and longitudinal design the development of these learning styles during students' stay at the university is studied, as well as the relation of these styles with academic success. A systematic relation between year of study and learning style is expected, namely that the application and meaning directed learning style scores would be higher in the later years and the undirected and reproduction learning style scores would be the highest in the early years.Results. In the cross‐sectional study it was not found that the application and meaning directed learning style scores were higher in the later years, nor that the undirected and reproduction learning style scores were the highest in the early years. In the longitudinal study the means of the meaning directed and application directed learning style scores indeed increased over the years, while the means of the reproduction and undirected learning style scores decreased. For the score on the meaning directed learning style, this change was significant, though a marginal effect size was found.Conclusion. It might not be concluded there is a systematic relation between year of study and learning style. No evidence is found for the implicit hierarchy that the meaning directed and application directed learning are better than the reproduction learning style. The undirected learning style, however, correlates negatively with academic success.
An evaluation of structured abstracts in journals published by the British Psychological Society
Authors: Hartley James , Benjamin Michele 
Published: May 2011

Background. In 1997 four journals published by the British Psychological Society — the British Journal of Clinical Psychology, the British Journal of Educational Psychology, the British Journal of Health Psychology, and Legal and Criminological Psychology — began publishing structured abstracts.Aims. The aim of the studies reported here was to assess the effectiveness of these structured abstracts by comparing them with original versions written in a traditional, unstructured, format.Method. The authors of articles accepted for publication in the four journals were asked to supply copies of their original traditional abstracts (written when the paper was submitted) together with copies of their structured abstracts (when the paper was revised). 48 such requests were made, and 30 pairs of abstracts were obtained. These abstracts were then compared on a number of measures.Results. Analysis showed that the structured abstracts were significantly more readable, significantly longer, and significantly more informative than the traditional ones. Judges assessed the contents of the structured abstracts more quickly and with significantly less difficulty than they did the traditional ones. Almost every respondent expressed positive attitudes to structured abstracts.Conclusions. The structured abstracts fared significantly better than the traditional ones on every measure used in this enquiry. We recommend, therefore, that the editors of other journals in the social sciences consider adopting structured abstracts.
An intervention programme for children with moderate learning difficulties
Authors: Lamb Susannah J. , Bibby Peter A. , Wood David J. , Leyden Gervase 
Published: May 2011

Background. Children with learning difficulties typically demonstrate problems generalising what they have learned in specific contexts to new situations. Intervention programmes that teach children regulatory skills have been shown to overcome these problems for children with reading difficulties. This study applies the principles that underlie such interventions to the design of a programme for children with more general learning difficulties.Aim. The aim of the study reported here was to design and evaluate an intervention programme which would facilitate the transfer of skills learned over the course of the intervention to different types of task.Sample. A total of 41 children (aged 13–16 yrs; 14 females, 27 males) with moderate learning difficulties participated in the intervention programme.Method. The children participated in a twelve‐week intervention programme designed to promote regulatory strategies over a range of activities. The children worked in pairs and were guided by an adult who provided explicit instruction and modelled appropriate strategies. The children were assessed before and after the programme to determine whether improvements in strategic behaviour were evident and whether this generalised to new situations.Results. Gains made in regulatory skills over the course of the intervention were accompanied by improvements in other performance measures such as reading and IQ.Conclusions. Even after a relatively short intervention, which focused on the development of regulatory skills, significant improvements on a range of tasks were observed for a group of children with moderate learning difficulties.
Pupils' explanations of seasonal changes: age differences and the influence of teaching
Authors: Kikas Eve 
Published: May 2011

Background. Pupils have consistent everyday astronomical explanations, some of which, e.g., distance theory, are very resistant to change. The reasons why everyday explanations are not replaced by scientific ones have been connected with teaching methods used in school.Aims. The developmental differences in explaining seasonal changes and the reasons why school teaching fails in changing distance theory are studied.Samples. The 112 schoolchildren participating in the study were: 32 pupils from each of grade 3 (age 9–10), grade 5 (age 11–12) and grade 7 (age 13–14) (half of them from a state school, others from Waldorf school) and 16 pupils from grade 9 (age 15–16). Half of the pupils were boys. The participants were divided into groups of four same‐sex and same‐grade pupils (i.e., into 28 groups).Methods. Guided peer discussions in foursomes are used. Explanations of pupils of different ages and from two schools with different teaching methods are compared.Results. The sources of references on which pupils based their explanations were divided into five categories: everyday, distance‐theory, incomplete, exact rules and authoritative. It is shown that younger pupils refer more frequently to everyday perceptible data and older ones more to knowledge taught in school but using distance theory does not change with age. Differences between schools were determined.Conclusions. Such an everyday explanation as distance theory is very vital as it is drawn from several everyday experiences with heat sources. It is used to explain seasonal changes as far as scientific explanations learnt in school have not been well understood or have been forgotten.
A multilevel meta‐analysis of gender differences in learning orientations
Authors: Severiens Sabine , ten Dam Geert 
Published: May 2011

Background. Reviewing gender differences in learning processes does not result in a clear and coherent picture of the magnitude and direction of gender differences (Severiens & ten Dam, 1994). The results not only differ on several dimensions but at times they are actually contradictory.Aims. The aim of the present study is to obtain a more coherent picture of gender differences in learning orientations.Samples. To provide this picture, a meta‐analysis was performed on 22 studies which investigate gender differences in learning orientations. The studies used Entwistle's Approaches to Studying Inventory, and were conducted in a variety of higher education settings.Methods. The results of these studies were analysed in a multilevel approach with two levels: the respondents are nested within studies.Results. Results show significant mean gender differences on the Reproduction Orientation (women score higher), and on the Non‐academic Orientation (men score higher). Furthermore, gender differences appeared on 11 of 16 scales (e.g., relating ideas, operational learning, fear of failure, negative attitude to studying, extrinsic motivation). The effect scores of 10 of 16 scales of the ASI are heterogeneous. The observed variation in gender differences across studies could not be explained by the small number of available study characteristics.Conclusions. More research is needed which explores factors in the educational context ‘responsible’ for the magnitude and direction of gender differences in learning orientations.
INTEGRAL FORMULATION OF 3D NAVIER–STOKES AND LONGER TIME EXISTENCE OF SMOOTH SOLUTIONS
Authors: COSTIN O. , LUO G. , TANVEER S. 
Published: May 2011

We extend Borel summability methods to the analysis of the 3D Navier–Stokes initial value problem, [Formula: see text] where [Formula: see text] is the Hodge projection to divergence-free vector fields. We assume that the Fourier transform norms [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are finite. We prove that the integral equation obtained from (*) by Borel transform and Écalle acceleration, Û (k, q), is exponentially bounded for q in a sector centered on ℝ+, where q is the inverse Laplace dual to 1/tnfor n ≥ 1.This implies in particular local existence of a classical solution to (*) for t ∈ (0, T), where T depends on [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. Global existence of the solution to NS follows if ‖Û(⋅, q)‖l1has subexponential bounds as q → ∞.If f = 0, then the converse is also true: if NS has global solution, then there exists n ≥ 1 for which ‖Û(⋅, q)‖ necessarily decays. More generally, if the exponential growth rate in q of Û is α, then a classical solution to NS exists for t ∈ (0, α-1/n).We show that α can be better estimated based on the values of Û on a finite interval [0, q0]. We also show how the integral equation can be solved numerically with controlled errors.Preliminary numerical calculations of the integral equation over a modest [0, 10], q-interval for n = 2 corresponding to Kida ([21]) initial conditions, though far from being optimized or rigorously controlled, suggest that this approach gives an existence time for 3D Navier–Stokes that substantially exceeds classical estimate.
Tumor Suppressor miR-22 Determines p53-Dependent Cellular Fate through Post-transcriptional Regulation of p21
Authors: Tsuchiya Naoto , Izumiya Masashi , Ogata-Kawata Hiroko , Okamoto Koji , Fujiwara Yuko , Nakai Makiko , Okabe Atsushi , Schetter Aaron J. , Bowman Elise D. , Midorikawa Yutaka , Sugiyama Yasuyuki , Aburatani Hiroyuki , Harris Curtis C. , Nakagama Hitoshi 
Published: May 2011

Abstract
Selective activation of p53 target genes in response to various cellular stresses is a critical step in determining the ability to induce cell-cycle arrest or apoptosis. Here we report the identification of the microRNA miR-22 as a p53 target gene that selectively determines the induction of p53-dependent apoptosis by repressing p21. Combinatorial analyses of the AGO2 immunocomplex and gene expression profiles identified p21 as a direct target of miR-22. Induction of p21 was inhibited by miR-22 after exposure to the genotoxic agent Adriamycin (doxorubicin; Bedford Laboratories), sensitizing cells to p53-dependent apoptosis. Interestingly, the activation of miR-22 depended on the intensity of the stresses that induced cells to undergo apoptosis in the presence of p21 suppression. Our findings define an intrinsic molecular switch that determines p53-dependent cellular fate through post-transcriptional regulation of p21. Cancer Res; 71(13); 4628–39. ©2011 AACR.
Nicotinamide Blocks Proliferation and Induces Apoptosis of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Cells through Activation of the p53/miR-34a/SIRT1 Tumor Suppressor Network
Authors: Audrito Valentina , Vaisitti Tiziana , Rossi Davide , Gottardi Daniela , D'Arena Giovanni , Laurenti Luca , Gaidano Gianluca , Malavasi Fabio , Deaglio Silvia 
Published: May 2011

Abstract
Because of its relatively indolent clinical course, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) offers a versatile model for testing novel therapeutic regimens and drug combinations. Nicotinamide is the main NAD+ precursor and a direct inhibitor of four classes of enzymes, including the sirtuins. SIRT1, the main member of the sirtuin family, inactivates p53 by deacetylating a critical lysine residue. In this study, we showed that CLL cells express high levels of functional SIRT1, which is inhibited by exogenous nicotinamide. This agent blocks proliferation and promotes apoptosis selectively in leukemic cells that express wild-type (wt) p53. Nicotinamide modulates the p53-dependent genes p21, NOXA, BAX, and Mcl-1, indicating an activation of the p53 pathway and of caspase-3. DNA-damaging chemotherapeutics, such as etoposide, activate a functional loop linking SIRT1 and p53 through the induction of miR-34a. When leukemic cells are simultaneously exposed to nicotinamide and etoposide, we observe a significant increase in miR-34a levels with a concomitant inhibition of SIRT1. Furthermore, p53 acetylation levels are higher than with either agent used alone. Overall, treatment with both nicotinamde and etoposide shows strongly synergistic effects in the induction of apoptosis. We therefore concluded that nicotinamide has the dual property of inhibiting SIRT1 through a noncompetitive enzymatic block (p53 independent) and at the same time through miR-34a induction (p53 dependent). These observations suggested the therapeutic potential of nicotinamide, a novel, safe, and inexpensive drug, to be used in addition to chemotherapy for CLL patients with wt p53. Cancer Res; 71(13); 4473–83. ©2011 AACR.