Individual Differences in Children’s Paths to Arithmetical Development

Cross-sectional and longitudinal data consistently indicate that mathematical difficulties are more prevalent in older than in younger children (e.g. Department of Education, 2011). Children’s trajectories can take a variety of shapes such as linear, flat, curvilinear, and uneven, and shape has been found to vary within children and across tasks (J Jordan, Mulhern, and Wylie, 2009). There has been an increase in the use of statistical methods which are specifically designed to study development, and this has greatly improved our understanding of children’s mathematical development. However, the effects of many cognitive and social variables (e.g. working memory and verbal ability) on mathematical development are unclear. It is likely that greater consistency between studies will be achieved by adopting a componential approach to study mathematics, rather than treating mathematics as a unitary concept.</p

日本人英語学習者が持つ二項表現の生産的知識についての調査

本研究では，日本人英語学習者の持つ二項表現の生産的知識を調査することで，(1) どの二項表現について生産的知識を持っているのか，(2) 二項表現がわからない場合に，どのような方略で二項表現を生み出すのか，という二点を明らかにした。103名の中級レベルの日本人英語学習者を対象に，44の二項表現の最初の1語を与え，and の次に来る語を答えさせる課題を与えた結果，75％以上の正答率を得た二項表現が19あり，日本人英語学習者でも特定の二項表現については生産的知識を持っていることが分かった。また，誤答を分析した結果，意味を中心とした方略を用いている事が多く，二項表現として期待される意味関係が分かっていない場合や，意味関係が正しくても，期待される語を答えられない場合があることが分かった。これらの結果を踏まえ，英語学習者により多くのインプットを与えることで，二項表現に触れる機会を増やすとともに，“Me first” principle (Cooper & Ross, 1975) を明示的に教えることで，馴染みのない二項表現に対するより効果的な方略を育てることが提案された。The purpose of this research is to reveal (1) which English binomials Japanese learners of English have productive knowledge of and (2) what strategies they use to produce English binomials when they do not know the binomials. One hundred and three Japanese learners of English with intermediate proficiency level completed an online survey of 44 binomials. The participants were given the first word of a binomial and asked to type a word following “and”. The target word was provided by more than 75% of participants for 19 of the 44 binomials, meaning that learners have productive knowledge for certain binomials. An analysis of errors suggested that the participants relied heavily on semantic relationships between items in binomials. However, the use of a semantic strategy for producing the second words often leads to non-binomial expressions. From these results we suggest that giving more input to learners, as well as teaching the “Me first” principle (Cooper & Ross, 1975) explicitly would help the learners to develop more accurate and effective strategies for uncertain or unfamiliar binomials

Embedding corporate social responsibility in small and medium-sized enterprises: a framework for successful implementation and value creation through employee engagement

In this paper, we address two interrelated research gaps in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) literature. The first is a lack of understanding of how CSR strategies are constructed and successfully implemented in practice. The second is the dearth of literature related to embedding CSR within Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). We developed the Conceptual Model of Employee Engagement, CSR Implementation and Value Creation from the literature, applying the Communication Constitutes Organisations (CCO) theoretical lens. This lens proposes that companies move through three communicative phases in embedding CSR: the leadership-driven instrumental phase, the political phase (which seeks feedback from stakeholders) and the networked phase (where CSR activities are co-created with employees). The conceptual model was tested using in-depth case studies with five Northern Irish SMEs. It was found that companies took a phased-approach to CSR implementation, with increasing employee engagement within each phase. The CCO approach results in value creation through CSR becoming initialised and embraced by employees through the 'hard’ and 'soft’ wiring of CSR activities into organisational decision-making. The findings were then operationalised to create The Analytical Framework for Employee Engagement, CSR Implementation and Value Creation to provide guidance to practitioners and policymakers on approaches to incorporating CSR