Visualising the invisible: a network approach to reveal the informal social side of student learning

World-wide, universities in health sciences have transformed their curriculum to include collaborative learning and facilitate the students’ learning process. Interaction has been acknowledged to be the synergistic element in this learning context. However, students spend the majority of their time outside their classroom and interaction does not stop outside the classroom. Therefore we studied how informal social interaction influences student learning. Moreover, to explore what really matters in the students learning process, a model was tested how the generally known important constructs—prior performance, motivation and social integration—relate to informal social interaction and student learning. 301 undergraduate medical students participated in this cross-sectional quantitative study. Informal social interaction was assessed using self-reported surveys following the network approach. Students’ individual motivation, social integration and prior performance were assessed by the Academic Motivation Scale, the College Adaption Questionnaire and students’ GPA respectively. A factual knowledge test represented student’ learning. All social networks were positively associated with student learning significantly: friendships (β = 0.11), providing information to other students (β = 0.16), receiving information from other students (β = 0.25). Structural equation modelling revealed a model in which social networks increased student learning (r = 0.43), followed by prior performance (r = 0.31). In contrast to prior literature, students’ academic motivation and social integration were not associated with students’ learning. Students’ informal social interaction is strongly associated with students’ learning. These findings underline the need to change our focus from the formal context (classroom) to the informal context to optimize student learning and deliver modern medics

Knowledge-based society, peer production and the common good

This article investigates the societal conditions that might help the establishment of peer-to-peer modes of production. First, the context within which such a new model is emerging \u2014 the neoliberal knowledge-based-societies \u2014 is described, and its shortcomings unveiled; and second, a robust argument is provided for the moral legitimation of an alternative societal vision, including two structural policies that are likely to facilitate the establishment and further development of peer-to-peer practices

Media Effects and the Question of the Rational Audience: Lessons from the Financial Markets

This article offers evidence for an alternative perspective on the media effects debate. Early work on media influence, be it conservative or critical, assumed a causal link between mass media and mass behaviour. In contrast, decades of effects and audience research has established the inadequacy of this ‘strong effects’ paradigm. The main thrust of this counter-research is the realization that audiences actively consume and use the media for self-serving purposes. The alternative perspective offered here comes from a study of elite fund managers, their communications and decision-making in the London Stock Exchange. The research findings suggest that such individuals do respond actively to media, but, collectively, the results can be both self-defeating and on a mass scale. That is, individuals do not have to be ignorant nor act irrationally to contribute to media-instigated, collective irrationality

Evaluating offshore and domestic production in the apparel industry: The small firm’s perspective

Offshore production, Domestic production, Apparel industry, Manufacturing strategy, Cost, Quality, Delivery, Flexibility,

Exploring alternative strategic management paradigms in high-growth ethnic and non-ethnic family firms

Family firms, SMEs, Ethnicity, Strategy, M13, L26,