Effects of Creativity Instruction in Science on Creative Thinking and Science Achievement in Chinese Students

This study investigated the effectiveness of the 3eT instructional model designed by Hong (Hong, 2012a; Hong, O\u27Neil, Drobick, & Beisel, 2013) that focused on increasing students\u27 creative-thinking ability. 120 seventh-graders in China participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to the experimental or the control group. They learned a segment of a science curriculum unit with instructional materials developed based on the 3eT model which aimed to encourage students to use creative thinking techniques. Patterns of students\u27 perceptions of a creative person were compared between the experimental group and the control group. Content analyses of students\u27 narrative responses elicited five themes: Thinking Ability, Personality, Motivation, Intelligence, and Skills. In general, both the control and the experimental groups provided similar results for the five themes. However, Fisher\u27s exact tests indicated that students in the experimental group proposed more concepts related to Divergent thinking, Like to conducting experiments and research, and Having special talents, which were some of the key features that the 3eT instructional model had emphasized during the training. The MANOVA tests indicated that significant differences were found in the combined creative-thinking scores for three TIPS items. The follow-up ANOVA tests indicated significant differences between groups on all three dependent variables (fluency, flexibility, and originality) for the TIPS1. There were significant differences on originality mean scores across all three TIPS items. In addition, the results of the current study did not support the claim that the 3eT instructional model affected students\u27 science achievement scores. The current study provided a practical and effective way that creative-thinking techniques could be integrated into the 3eT instructional model and be delivered in the regular classroom curriculum

Some , And Possibly All, Scalar Inferences Are Not Delayed: Evidence For Immediate Pragmatic Enrichment

Scalar inferences are commonly generated when a speaker uses a weaker expression rather than a stronger alternative, e.g., John ate some of the apples implies that he did not eat them all. This article describes a visual-world study investigating how and when perceivers compute these inferences. Participants followed spoken instructions containing the scalar quantifier some directing them to interact with one of several referential targets (e.g., Click on the girl who has some of the balloons). Participants fixated on the target compatible with the implicated meaning of some and avoided a competitor compatible with the literal meaning prior to a disambiguating noun. Further, convergence on the target was as fast for some as for the non-scalar quantifiers none and all. These findings indicate that the scalar inference is computed immediately and is not delayed relative to the literal interpretation of some. It is argued that previous demonstrations that scalar inferences increase processing time are not necessarily due to delays in generating the inference itself, but rather arise because integrating the interpretation of the inference with relevant information in the context may require additional time. With sufficient contextual support, processing delays disappear

China’s Economic Growth 1978-2025: What We Know Today about China’s Economic Growth Tomorrow

Views of the future China vary widely. While some believe that the collapse of China is inevitable, others see the emergence of a new superpower that increasingly poses a threat to the U.S. This paper examines the economic growth prospects of China over the next two decades. Extrapolating past real GDP growth rates into the future, the size of the Chinese economy surpasses that of the U.S. in purchasing power terms between 2012 and 2015; by 2025, China is likely to be the world's largest economic power by almost any measure. The extrapolations are supported by two types of considerations. First, China’s growth patterns of the past 25 years since the beginning of economic reforms match well those identified by standard economic development and trade theories (structural change, catching up, and factor price equalization). Second, decomposing China’s GDP growth into growth of labor and other variables, the near-certain information available today about the quantity and quality of Chinese laborers through 2015 and possibly several years after allows inferences about future GDP growth. Short of some cataclysmic event, and given a continuation of the generally sound economic policies of the past, demographics alone suggests China’s continued economic rise. If talent is randomly distributed in the world population and if agglomeration of talent is important, then the odds are strongly in China’s favor.economic growth, growth accounting, growth forecasts, development theories, human capital formation, education (all: China)

Critical Distinctions between Expert and Novice Translators: Task and Professional Satisfaction

The nature of translation projects and tasks in the language industry has undergone significant changes due to a widespread adoption of the subcontracting model and recent technological trends. Managing increasing terminological complexity, higher task specialisation, and higher levels of technical expertise have become essential elements of a translator’s professional profile. Nonetheless, the requirement of such a sophisticated professional profile has challenged novice translators in their incipient careers because of limited knowledge and training opportunities. Since many changes have occurred to the profession over a relatively short span of time, this article studies sources of translator satisfaction and dissatisfaction that may affect their perception of work as well as the language industry at large. This study reports results from an ongoing investigation into the ‘expertise effect’ measured through translator satisfaction in relation to two main categories: (a) professional satisfaction and (b) task satisfaction. A student’s t-test is used to compare perceptions of novice and expert translators (N=250), and the results suggest a gap in critical sources of satisfaction between the two populations. The findings could be applied to determine possible means of mitigating career turnover among translators and used by translator trainers to comprehend the needs of novice professionals

Programming errors in traversal programs over structured data

Traversal strategies \'a la Stratego (also \'a la Strafunski and 'Scrap Your Boilerplate') provide an exceptionally versatile and uniform means of querying and transforming deeply nested and heterogeneously structured data including terms in functional programming and rewriting, objects in OO programming, and XML documents in XML programming. However, the resulting traversal programs are prone to programming errors. We are specifically concerned with errors that go beyond conservative type errors; examples we examine include divergent traversals, prematurely terminated traversals, and traversals with dead code. Based on an inventory of possible programming errors we explore options of static typing and static analysis so that some categories of errors can be avoided. This exploration generates suggestions for improvements to strategy libraries as well as their underlying programming languages. Haskell is used for illustrations and specifications with sufficient explanations to make the presentation comprehensible to the non-specialist. The overall ideas are language-agnostic and they are summarized accordingly