Can camp get you into a better secondary school? A field experiment of targeted instruction in Kenya

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-56
Author(s):  
Beth E. Schueler ◽  
Daniel Rodriguez-Segura

Access to quality secondary schooling can be life-changing for students in developing contexts. In Kenya, entrance to such schools was historically determined by performance on a high-stakes exam. Understandably then, preparation for this exam is a high priority for Kenyan families and educators. To increase the share of students entering these schools, some educational providers offer targeted instruction for students they believe have a chance of securing a spot. We use a randomized control trial to evaluate the impact of these “symposia” programs—week-long, sleep-away camps where eighth grade students receive a burst of academic instruction from teachers selected based on merit. While similar models have been tested in the U.S., less is known about this type of intervention in developing settings. We find these programs were not particularly effective for the average nominated student relative to a typical week of school. However, we find large, positive effects among students attending schools from which few students are nominated for symposia. We provide suggestive evidence that this was because students from lowrepresentation schools had less pre-camp practice test resources outside of school. The results have implications for program design and the growing literature on the effectiveness of appropriately targeted individualized instruction.

Author(s):  
Karin Guill ◽  
Melike Ömeroğulları ◽  
Olaf Köller

AbstractPrivate supplementary tutoring is a widespread phenomenon. However, evidence that private tutoring has positive effects on academic achievement or about the specific conditions of successful private tutoring is rare. Adapting Carroll’s (1963) model for school learning to private tutoring, we expected to find positive effects of tutoring duration, tutoring intensity, and students’ motivation to attend private tutoring. In a sample of eighth-grade students in German secondary schools (N = 8510, 18.6% currently being tutored), we conducted regression analyses with multiple covariates and did not find a positive main effect of private tutoring attendance in any of the school subjects examined. Moreover, within the subsamples of tutored students, we were not able to identify positive effects of tutoring duration, tutoring intensity, tutoring content (such as a focus on homework completion, test preparation, or study behavior), or students’ motivation to attend private tutoring. Given these disillusioning findings, we primarily derive suggestions for future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 6579-6590
Author(s):  
Sandy Çağlıyor ◽  
Başar Öztayşi ◽  
Selime Sezgin

The motion picture industry is one of the largest industries worldwide and has significant importance in the global economy. Considering the high stakes and high risks in the industry, forecast models and decision support systems are gaining importance. Several attempts have been made to estimate the theatrical performance of a movie before or at the early stages of its release. Nevertheless, these models are mostly used for predicting domestic performances and the industry still struggles to predict box office performances in overseas markets. In this study, the aim is to design a forecast model using different machine learning algorithms to estimate the theatrical success of US movies in Turkey. From various sources, a dataset of 1559 movies is constructed. Firstly, independent variables are grouped as pre-release, distributor type, and international distribution based on their characteristic. The number of attendances is discretized into three classes. Four popular machine learning algorithms, artificial neural networks, decision tree regression and gradient boosting tree and random forest are employed, and the impact of each group is observed by compared by the performance models. Then the number of target classes is increased into five and eight and results are compared with the previously developed models in the literature.


Author(s):  
Sang Nguyen Minh

This study uses the DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) method to estimate the technical efficiency index of 34 Vietnamese commercial banks in the period 2007-2015, and then it analyzes the impact of income diversification on the operational efficiency of Vietnamese commercial banks through a censored regression model - the Tobit regression model. Research results indicate that income diversification has positive effects on the operational efficiency of Vietnamese commercial banks in the research period. Based on study results, in this research some recommendations forpolicy are given to enhance the operational efficiency of Vietnam’s commercial banking system.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 209-222
Author(s):  
Philipp K. Görs ◽  
Henning Hummert ◽  
Anne Traum ◽  
Friedemann W. Nerdinger

Digitalization is a megatrend, but there is relatively little knowledge about its consequences for service work in general and specifically in knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS). We studied the impact of digitalization on psychological consequences for employees in tax consultancies as a special case of KIBS. We compare two tax consulting jobs with very different job demands, those of tax consultants (TCs) and assistant tax consultants (ATCs). The results show that the extent of digitalization at the workplace level for ATCs correlates significantly positively with their job satisfaction. For TCs, the same variable correlates positively with their work engagement. These positive effects of digitalization are mediated in the case of ATCs by the impact on important job characteristics. In the case of TCs, which already have very good working conditions, the impact is mediated by the positive effect on self-efficacy. Theoretical and practical consequences of these results are discussed.


Author(s):  
N. Maidanovych ◽  

The purpose of this work is to review and analyze the main results of modern research on the impact of climate change on the agro-sphere of Ukraine. Results. Analysis of research has shown that the effects of climate change on the agro-sphere are already being felt today and will continue in the future. The observed climate changes in recent decades have already significantly affected the shift in the northern direction of all agro-climatic zones of Europe, including Ukraine. From the point of view of productivity of the agro-sphere of Ukraine, climate change will have both positive and negative consequences. The positives include: improving the conditions of formation and reducing the harvesting time of crop yields; the possibility of effective introduction of late varieties (hybrids), which require more thermal resources; improving the conditions for overwintering crops; increase the efficiency of fertilizer application. Model estimates of the impact of climate change on wheat yields in Ukraine mainly indicate the positive effects of global warming on yields in the medium term, but with an increase in the average annual temperature by 2 ° C above normal, grain yields are expected to decrease. The negative consequences of the impact of climate change on the agrosphere include: increased drought during the growing season; acceleration of humus decomposition in soils; deterioration of soil moisture in the southern regions; deterioration of grain quality and failure to ensure full vernalization of grain; increase in the number of pests, the spread of pathogens of plants and weeds due to favorable conditions for their overwintering; increase in wind and water erosion of the soil caused by an increase in droughts and extreme rainfall; increasing risks of freezing of winter crops due to lack of stable snow cover. Conclusions. Resource-saving agricultural technologies are of particular importance in the context of climate change. They include technologies such as no-till, strip-till, ridge-till, which make it possible to partially store and accumulate mulch on the soil surface, reduce the speed of the surface layer of air and contribute to better preservation of moisture accumulated during the autumn-winter period. And in determining the most effective ways and mechanisms to reduce weather risks for Ukrainian farmers, it is necessary to take into account the world practice of climate-smart technologies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 1001-1014
Author(s):  
Sulaiman & Sadiq

The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse during 2017 and 2018 growing seasons to evaluate the impact of the shading and various nutrition programs on mitigating heat stress, reducing the use of chemical minerals, improving the reproductive growth and yield of tomato plant. Split-plot within Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications was conducted in this study. Shading factor was allocated in the main plots and the nutrition programs distributed randomly in the subplots. Results indicate that shading resulted in the decrease of daytime temperature by 5.7˚C as an average for both seasons; thus a significant increasing was found in leaf contents of macro nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium), and micro nutrients (Iron, Zinc and Boron), except the Iron content in 2018 growing season. Furthermore, shading improved significantly the reproductive growth and tomato yield. Among the plant nutrition programs, the integrated nutrient management (INM) including the application of organic substances, bio inoculum of AMF and 50% of the recommended dose of chemical fertilizers; lead to the enhancement of nutrients content, reproductive characteristics and plant yield. Generally, combination of both shading and INM showed positive effects on plants nutrient status and persisting balance on tomato flowering growth and fruits yield.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (40) ◽  
pp. 5503-5511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulaziz Alhasaniah ◽  
Michael J. Sherratt ◽  
Catherine A. O'Neill

A competent epidermal barrier is crucial for terrestrial mammals. This barrier must keep in water and prevent entry of noxious stimuli. Most importantly, the epidermis must also be a barrier to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) from the sunlight. Currently, the effects of ultraviolet radiation on epidermal barrier function are poorly understood. However, studies in mice and more limited work in humans suggest that the epidermal barrier becomes more permeable, as measured by increased transepidermal water loss, in response UVR, at doses sufficiently high to induce erythema. The mechanisms may include disturbance in the organisation of lipids in the stratum corneum (the outermost layer of the epidermis) and reduction in tight junction function in the granular layer (the first living layer of the skin). By contrast, suberythemal doses of UVR appear to have positive effects on epidermal barrier function. Topical sunscreens have direct and indirect protective effects on the barrier through their ability to block UV and also due to their moisturising or occlusive effects, which trap water in the skin, respectively. Some topical agents such as specific botanical extracts have been shown to prevent the loss of water associated with high doses of UVR. In this review, we discuss the current literature and suggest that the biology of UVR-induced barrier dysfunction, and the use of topical products to protect the barrier, are areas worthy of further investigation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruna Camilo Turi ◽  
Henrique Luiz Monteiro ◽  
Rômulo Araújo Fernandes ◽  
Jamile Sanches Codogno

2021 ◽  
pp. 074171362110190
Author(s):  
Fabian Rüter ◽  
Andreas Martin

Participation in adult learning and education requires the availability of, and accessibility to, learning opportunities provided by educational institutions. One fundamental element is time. Adult learning and education participation can only be realized by successfully matching individual time-availabilities with the temporal organization of provided courses. To address this required matching process, this study contributes to research literature as one of the first studies that investigates the impact of timing and course duration on participation counts (longitudinally). For this, we use organizational data from public adult education centers ( Volkshochschulen—VHS; the main adult education providers in Germany) from 2007 to 2017. Methodologically, random- and fixed-effects models are applied. We find significant positive effects on participation counts between increasing program breadth in terms of temporal formats and increasing average course duration.


2021 ◽  
pp. 016264342198997
Author(s):  
Sojung Jung ◽  
Ciara Ousley ◽  
David McNaughton ◽  
Pamela Wolfe

In this meta-analytic review, we investigated the effects of technology supports on the acquisition of shopping skills for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) between the ages of 5 and 24. Nineteen single-case experimental research studies, presented in 15 research articles, met the current study’s inclusion criteria and the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) standards. An analysis of potential moderators was conducted, and we calculated effect sizes using Tau-U to examine the impact of age, diagnosis, and type of technology on the reported outcomes for the 56 participants. The results from the included studies provide evidence that a wide range of technology interventions had a positive impact on shopping performance. These positive effects were seen for individuals across a wide range of ages and disability types, and for a wide variety of shopping skills. The strongest effect sizes were observed for technologies that provided visual supports rather than just auditory support. We provide an interpretation of the findings, implications of the results, and recommended areas for future research.


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