Fairness in Skill Acquisition

In this paper we try to determine which policy implements fairness in the distribution of educational outcomes, in a framework in which skills arise from the combination of circumstances, effort and transfers, and determine individual utility. Our definition of fairness relies on two ethical principles, liberal reward and compensation, which have been well defined and studied by many authors in the last decade, and is linked to the philosophical debate that, since the late '60, has debated about the meaning of educational opportunities. According to this definition, to be fair an allocation should remove inequalities not due to individuals' responsibility.

The measurement and determinants of skill acquisition in young workers' first job

The article analyses participation in five types of training (formal on-site, formal off-site, informal co-worker training, learning by watching and learning by doing) and self-assessed skill acquisition in young Flemish workers' first job. A skill production function is estimated whereby the simultaneity of participation in the different types of training and skill acquisition is taken into account. The results clearly demonstrate the importance of informal training. Formal training participation is found to be only a fraction of total training participation. Moreover, the determinants of total training participation and skill acquisition differ from those of formal training participation. While some training types are complementary, others are clearly substitutes. Finally, most types of training generate additional skills. Nonetheless, learning by doing is found to be complementary to formal education in the production of both specific and general skills, whereas formal training serves as a substitute

Effective skill refinement: Focusing on process to ensure outcome

In contrast to the abundance of motor skill acquisition and performance research, there is a paucity of work which addresses how athletes with an already learnt and well-established skill may go about making a subtle change, or refinement, to that skill. Accordingly, the purpose of this review paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of current understanding pertaining to such practice. Specifically, this review addresses deliberately initiated refinements to closed and self-paced skills (e.g., javelin throwing, golf swing and horizontal jumps). In doing so, focus is directed to three fundamental considerations within applied coaching practice and future research endeavours; the intended outcomes, process and evaluative measures of skill refinement. Conclusions suggest that skill refinement is not the same as skill acquisition or performing already learnt skills with high-levels of automaticity. Due to the complexity of challenge faced, refinements are best addressed as an interdisciplinary solution, with objective measures informing coach decision making

General equilibrium models on skill acquisition and economic development: some comments

Deme et al. (2005, DFN) present a general equilibrium model for the case of Lesotho with a rising step skill acquisition function. DFN show that only a large amount of government expenditure on education, training and skill acquisition can pull the economy out of its inertia. As a comment on DFN, Bandopadhyay (2006) develops a similar general equilibrium model and analyzes the impact of government expenditure on skill acquisition. He finds that the outcome on the economy is independent of the amount of the government spending. By comparing the two models I show, that Bandopadhyay's findings replicate one aspect of the findings of DFN and do not add additional insight to the discussion.skill acquisition; economic development; general equilibrium; human capital

Skill Acquisition, Credit Constraints, and Trade

This paper looks at the effect of credit constraints on skill acquisition when agents have heterogeneous abilities and wealth. We use a two factor general equilibrium model and assume credit markets are absent. We explore the effects of trade on factor earnings as well as the evolution of the distribution of income in small and large economies. Our work suggests that developed countries need to ensure access to education when liberalizing trade to ensure they reap the potential gains from trade.

An introduction to the constraints-led approach to learning in outdoor education

Participation in outdoor education is underpinned by a learner's ability to acquire skills in activities such as canoeing, bushwalking and skiing and consequently the outdoor leader is often required to facilitate skill acquisition and motor learning. As such, outdoor leaders might benefit from an appropriate and tested model on how the learner acquires skills in order to design appropriate learning contexts. This paper introduces an approach to skill acquisition based on ecological psychology and dynamical systems theory called the constraints-led approach to skills acquisition. We propose that this student-centred approach is an ideal perspective for the outdoor leader to design effective learning settings. Furthermore, this open style of facilitation is also congruent with learning models that focus on other concepts such as teamwork and leadership

Skill acquisition and economic development — some comments

Deme, Franck and Naqvi(2005) showed that the increased government expenditure on education, training and skill acquisition leads to lower unemployment rate, expansion of the urban formal sector and the contraction of the urban informal sector. This was observed to be the case in Lesotho. The result is based on the two vital assumptions: public expenditure on education ,training and skill acquisition should be very large; and the skill acquisition function is a rising step function. We present a general equilibrium model with perfect capital mobility to analyse the impact of government expenditure on skill acquisition on urban unemployment, the urban formal sector and the urban informal sector.We find that it is possible to derive the Deme, Frank and Naqvi(2005) result independent of the level of government expenditure and the nature of the skill function.skill acquisition; economic development

Response through the Intentional Arc: Merleau-Ponty, Dreyfus and Second Language Acquisition

Language, when considered as part of the lived experience of human beings, fails to be reduced to mere representation. In line with non-representationalist understandings of the mind and knowledge-how centered understandings of knowledge, purposiveness in skill acquisition and second language acquisition may be understood through Dreyfus’s skillful coping, based in Merleau-Ponty’s intentional arc and maximal grip. Such an approach to second language acquisition decentralizes rule-based representationalist understandings of the process, such as universal grammar, and instead sees language and communication as responsive, dynamic and dyadic

Sleep quality influences subsequent motor skill acquisition

While the influence of sleep on motor memory consolidation has been extensively investigated, its relation to initial skill acquisition is less well understood. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of sleep quality and quantity on subsequent motor skill acquisition in young adults without sleep disorders. Fifty-five healthy adults (mean age = 23.8 years; 34 women) wore actigraph wristbands for 4 nights, which provided data on sleep patterns before the experiment, and then returned to the laboratory to engage in a motor sequence learning task (explicit 5-item finger sequence tapping task). Indicators of sleep quality and quantity were then regressed on a measure of motor skill acquisition (Gains Within Training, GWT). Wake After Sleep Onset (WASO; i.e., the total amount of time the participants spent awake after falling asleep) was significantly and negatively related to GWT. This effect was not because of general arousal level, which was measured immediately before the motor task. Conversely, there was no relationship between GWT and sleep duration or self-reported sleep quality. These results indicate that sleep quality, as assessed by WASO and objectively measured with actigraphy before the motor task, significantly impacts motor skill acquisition in young healthy adults without sleep disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).Accepted manuscrip