Online and clicker quizzing on jargon terms enhances definition-focused but not conceptually focused biology exam performance

Mastery of jargon terms is an important part of student learning in biology and other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics domains. In two experiments, we investigated whether prelecture quizzes enhance memory for jargon terms, and whether that enhanced familiarity can facilitate learning of related concepts that are encountered during subsequent lectures and readings. Undergraduate students enrolled in neuroanatomy and physiology courses completed 10-minute low-stakes quizzes with feedback on jargon terms either online (experiment 1) or using in-class clickers (experiment 2). Quizzes occurred before conventional course instruction in which the terms were used. On exams occurring up to 12 weeks later, we observed improved student performance on questions that targeted memory of previously quizzed jargon terms and their definitions relative to questions on terms that were not quizzed. This pattern occurred whether those questions were identical (experiment 1) or different (experiment 2) from those used during quizzing. Benefits of jargon quizzing did not consistently generalize, however, to exam questions that assessed conceptual knowledge but not necessarily jargon knowledge. Overall, this research demonstrates that a brief and easily implemented jargon-quizzing intervention, deliverable via Internet or in-class platforms, can yield substantial improvements in students\u27 course-relevant scientific lexica, but does not necessarily impact conceptual learning

Influence of female managers on gender wage gap and returns to cognitive and non-cognitive skills

There is a modest but growing empirical body of evidence on the influence of managers' gender on the wages of their male and female subordinates. Most of these studies, however, suffer from a very raw approximation of the managers' gender by the share of women in charge, and often lack many important gender-specific personal characteristics, such as non-cognitive skills and life-work preferences, which can lead to biased results. This article copes with the mentioned deficiencies by employing a very rich and representative dataset of 1948 employees from the Czech Republic. It reveals surprising results as it shows that the gender of the manager has an effect on the level of wages, but not on the gender wage gap. It also shows that the gender of the manager and his/her subordinate has only a weak impact on the remuneration of an employee ' s non-cognitive skills and life-work preferences.Web of Science26573772

Recent Studies on Incentive Design Problems in Game Theory and Management Science

We study a simple principal-agent game and show how the linear wage contract can be obtained by a three-phase adjustment process. The first two processes result in an incentive compatible Pareto optimal outcome and the third process takes care of the agent's individual rationality. We also discuss a negotiation process to achieve this outcome and give the wage contract an interpretation in terms of incentive equilibrium. This concept has recently been an active research topic in dynamic games and management science studies. In this paper we present a new method for computing incentive Stackelberg solutions. The method is based on solving a system of nonlinear equations by using standard iterative schemes such as fixedpoint iteration or Broyden's method. The method can be implemented in the case of incomplete information because the leader does not need to know the followers' reaction function. The use of the method is shown in two examples: in a two player quadratic case and in a duopoly model with government coordination. More general problems and convergence properties of the method are discussed

Family socio-economic status, mother’s psychosocial skills and children’s human capital: evidence from four low- and middle-income countries

Family background has been considered one of most important factors associated with child development across different settings (Brooks-Gunn and Duncan 1997; Grantham-McGregor et al. 2007). Evidence from industrialized countries supports a strong link between different background factors, such as parental socio-economic status (SES), and parental cognitive and psychosocial skills on the one hand, and children’s cognitive and psychosocial skills on the other; these factors in turn are important determinants of educational achievement, earnings, and other key outcomes in later life (Osborne-Groves 2005a; Cunha et al. 2006; Blanden et al. 2007).</p