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Descriptors:
Cost Effectiveness; Outcomes of Education; Workplace Learning; Foreign Countries; Industry; Human Capital; Productivity; Technological Advancement; Models; Regression (Statistics)

Abstract:
One of the central problems in managing technological change and maintaining a competitive advantage in business is improving the skills of the workforce through investment in human capital and a variety of training practices. This paper explores the evidence on the impact of training investment on productivity in 14 Canadian industries from 1999 to 2005. Our productivity analysis demonstrates that in 12 out of 14 industries, training had a positive effect on productivity. However, when the analysis is put within a financial context, the return on investment was positive in only four industries. Faced with negative rates of return, why should managers in most of the industries in the study promote investment in training? Probably the best explanation is that new technology requires an investment in training. The investment in training is necessary just for the firm to maintain its current labour productivity. Employee turnover necessarily impedes the efficacy of training, because trained workers leave, and untrained workers arrive. Thus, training in this instance again is necessary just to maintain current labour productivity. (Contains 4 tables and 1 footnote.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Case Studies; Teleworking; Insurance; Program Effectiveness; Conservation (Environment); Productivity; Program Development; Prediction; Program Design; Planning; Labor Turnover; Job Satisfaction; Motivation; Costs

Abstract:
With the growing suburban population, many employees in metro areas are facing long commutes to and from the workplace. According to the 2011 Texas Transportation Institute's Urban Mobility Report, the average commuter experiences 34 hours of delay per year and spends an extra $713 on fuel (see http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/mobility-report-2011.pdf). This not only causes stress for the employee but also has a serious impact on the organization and the environment. (Contains 6 tables and 6 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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African American Students; Elementary School Students; Classification; Productivity; Low Income Groups; Socioeconomic Status; Semantics

Abstract:
The current study compares the productivity (number of responses) and the typical responses to taxonomic and slot-filler prompts in 39 African American children from low-income backgrounds and a diverse group of 21 children from middle-income backgrounds. The authors tested the hypothesis that socioeconomic status would exert a global influence on productivity and typicality responses such that children from middle-income environments would generate higher productivity rates and more sophisticated typical responses. They found support for this hypothesis only in categories that appear to be related to exposure to formal contexts. Several categories that reflect basic life experiences displayed similar rates of productivity and typical responses across socioeconomic groups. Findings from this study have implications for the assessment of semantic knowledge in elementary-school-age children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. (Contains 3 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Productivity; Factor Analysis; Statistical Analysis; English (Second Language); Second Language Instruction; Structural Equation Models; Likert Scales; Work Attitudes; Language Teachers; Teacher Attitudes; Surveys; College Faculty; Foreign Countries; Models; Comparative Analysis; Research; Goodness of Fit; Measures (Individuals)

Abstract:
A 30-item survey was devised to determine Chinese TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) academics' potential for conducting research. A five-part Likert scale was used to gather data from 182 academics on four factors: (1) perceptions on teaching-research nexus, (2) personal perspectives for conducting research, (3) predispositions for conducting research and (4) workplace contexts for conducting research. Data were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for structural equation modelling using various fit indices. The independence model was rejected. Accordingly, the CFA model proposed that the four factors covaried and were associated with each indicated item. The hypothesized CFA model demonstrated an acceptable model fit. After statistical analysis, a revised CFA model presented more reliable fit measures, which required a reduction in survey item numbers. This instrument will require further testing but may be used to draw comparisons between past and present data and determine areas for enhancing research productivity. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Productivity; English Departments; Costs; Humanities; Federal Government; Cost Indexes; Citation Analysis; Funding Formulas; Research Needs; Research Opportunities; Research Administration; Financial Support; Agenda Setting; Experimenter Characteristics; Robustness (Statistics); Investment; Value Judgment; Statistical Bias; Intellectual Disciplines

Abstract:
Over the last decade, and in the context of the fiscal crisis in the nation in general and in higher education in particular, a debate has raged over the value of humanities research. Various commentators have argued that unlike nonhumanities disciplines, fields such as English studies and other humanistic disciplines bring very little into their universities. The federal government simply does not fund the National Endowment for the Humanities--the major federal funding agency for humanities research--at a level comparable to that of the National Science Foundation or the National Institutes for Health. This funding inequity in and of itself is an illustration of the society's value system vis-a'-vis the humanities. In this article, the author focuses on a report published at the end of 2011: "Literary Research: Costs and Impact," authored by Emory University English professor Mark Bauerlein for the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. The report presents the results of an empirical analysis of faculty productivity: Bauerlein examines the costs of research in four English departments and then juxtaposes those costs to the numbers of citations of works published by faculty in those departments. The author aims to show first how this is a critically flawed study because it is representative of many attacks on the humanities and especially English studies, and because it thus illustrates a set of common assumptions about educators' work as humanists. Then he discusses how educators might better respond to these types of misunderstandings of and attacks on their work. (Contains 4 notes.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Foreign Countries; Job Performance; Intervention; Persistence; Goal Orientation; Context Effect; Performance Factors; Productivity; Keyboarding (Data Entry); Time

Abstract:
The authors of this study sought to quantify the beneficial effect of goal setting on work performance, and to characterize the persistence or deterioration of goal-directed behavior over time. Twenty-six participants completed a computer-based data entry task. Performance was measured during an initial baseline, a goal setting intervention that consisted of either a high, unattainable goal (high goal condition) or a low, attainable goal (low goal condition), followed by a return to baseline, and a second goal setting intervention (the alternate goal to the first goal). In the fifth condition, each participant was given the choice to work in either the high or low goal condition. Greater performance increases were reliably observed during the high goal condition than during the low goal condition, but patterns of persistence or deterioration varied across participants. The implications of the findings for the development and understanding of goal setting interventions in the workplace are explored. (Contains 5 tables and 6 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
On the Job Training; Educational Research; Human Capital; Economic Research; Transfer of Training; Productivity; Economics; Interdisciplinary Approach

Abstract:
Although the transfer of on-the-job training to the workplace belongs to the realm of educational research, it is also highly related to labour economics. In the economic literature, the transfer of training is based on the theoretical framework of human capital theory and has been extensively analysed empirically in econometric studies that take account of unobserved heterogeneity of workers and the selectivity in training participation. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the underlying theoretical paradigm in economics, and the challenges faced in empirical research. The economic literature finds that participation in training is beneficial for both the participating workers and their employers, although there is also evidence that selectivity of workers matters. Despite this progress in the economic literature, the underlying processes through which training leads to a higher productivity remain unclear. We argue that this "black box" offers opportunities for multi-disciplinary research projects on the transfer of training that relate the perspectives of educational and economic research. (Contains 1 table.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Productivity; Higher Education; Evaluation Criteria; Governance; Foreign Countries; Humanities; Global Approach; Competition; Reputation; Benchmarking; Educational Trends; College Faculty; Research; Faculty Publishing; Institutional Evaluation; Educational Policy; Financial Support; Periodicals; Citations (References); Social Sciences; Statistical Analysis; Academic Achievement; Excellence in Education; Student Recruitment

Abstract:
The increasing importance of the competition in global university ranking has resulted in a paradigm shift in academic governance in East Asia. Many governments have introduced different strategies for benchmarking their leading universities to facilitate global competitiveness and international visibility. A major trend in the changing university governance is the emergence of a regulatory evaluation scheme for faculty research productivity, reflected by the striking features of the recent changing academic profile of publication norms and forms that go beyond the territories of nation-states in the East and West. With the expansion of the Taiwanese higher education system in the last two decades, the maintenance of quality to meet the requirements for international competitiveness has become a key concern for policy makers. Since 2005, the Ministry of Education has introduced a series of university governance policies to enhance academic excellence in universities and established a formal university evaluation policy to improve the competitiveness and international visibility of Taiwanese universities. In so doing, the government has legalized a clear link between evaluation results and public funding allocation. Research performance is assessed in terms of the number of articles published in journals indexed by the Science Citation Index (SCI), the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index and in terms of citation rates and associated factors. Therefore, evaluation has taken on a highly quantitative dimension. Despite the efforts of concerned parties to encourage academic excellence, the above-mentioned quantitative evaluation indicators have resulted in bitter complaints from the humanities and social sciences, whose research accomplishments are devalued and ignored by the current quantitative indicators. In this paper, the authors describe the recent petition for collective action initiated by university faculty to protest the privileging of SSCI and SCI publications as critical indicators for academic performance regardless of faculty discipline and specialization. The article concludes its argument with a group petition calling for more diverse and reliable indicators in recognizing the research of different natures and disciplines while creating culturally responsive evaluation criteria for social sciences and humanities in the Taiwanese academe. The article not only sheds light on academic evaluation literature, especially on the uncertain paradox of globalization and market economy, but also proposes alternatives to the evaluation system for humanities and social sciences in higher education. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Productivity; Academic Rank (Professional); College Faculty; Program Effectiveness; Journal Articles; School Psychology; Gender Differences; Tenure; Accreditation (Institutions); Faculty Publishing; Citations (References); Correlation; Databases

Abstract:
The primary objective of this study was to conduct a normative assessment of the research productivity and scholarly impact of tenured and tenure-track faculty in school psychology programs accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA). Using the PsycINFO database, productivity and impact were examined for the field as a whole and by faculty rank and gender between 2005 and 2009. Results of our study reflected considerable variability in scholarly impact and productivity. For example, on average, school psychology faculty published slightly more than one refereed journal article per year, with productivity rates ranging from zero to eight articles per year. Similar variability in results was observed for scholarly impact. Results of this study also revealed no significant differences in productivity and impact by scholarly rank. Significant differences were observed for gender, however, with higher productivity and impact for men than women. A secondary objective of this study was to rank the most productive and impactful faculty by total authorship credit, number of publications, and number of citations, and to examine the relationships among these different rankings. Implications and limitations are discussed. (Contains 1 table.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Learning Disabilities; Writing Tests; Adolescents; Writing Evaluation; Grammar; Expository Writing; Text Structure; Pilot Projects; Productivity; Literary Genres; Narration; Correlation; Discourse Modes; Literary Devices; Student Writing Models; Language Acquisition; Difficulty Level; Performance Factors

Abstract:
We evaluated the narrative and expository writing samples of 12 adolescents with language-learning disabilities (LLD) in Grades 6 to 12 for elements of microstructure (e.g., productivity, grammatical complexity) and macrostructure (genre-specific text structure elements) using an experimental measure. Writing samples were elicited with genre-specific prompts via paper and pencil and transcribed according to "Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts" (SALT) conventions. Wilcoxon signed ranks tests indicate that levels of productivity and grammatical complexity were significantly greater in the narrative genre than in the expository genre. However, participants' writing samples demonstrated equally impoverished text structure for both genres. Positive correlations were found between microstructure and macrostructure performance. Findings confirm the effects of discourse genre on measures of microstructure and further elucidate the use of microstructure and macrostructure elements in the writing of adolescents with LLD. Future research, comprehensive writing assessment, and interventionists should consider direct measurement of both microstructure and macrostructure components across genres for this population. (Contains 4 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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