Understanding Matchmakers’ Experiences, Principles and Practices of Assembling Innovation Teams

The team composition of a project team is an essential determinant of the success of innovation projects that aim to produce novel solution ideas. Team assembly is essentially complex and sensitive decision-making, yet little supported by information technology (IT). In order to design appropriate digital tools for team assembly, and team formation more broadly, we call for profoundly understanding the practices and principles of matchmakers who manually assemble teams in specific contexts. This paper reports interviews with 13 expert matchmakers who are regularly assembling multidisciplinary innovation teams in various organizational environments in Finland. Based on qualitative analysis of their experiences, we provide insights into their established practices and principles in team assembly. We conceptualize and describe common tactical approaches on different typical levels of team assembly, including arranging approaches like “key-skills-first”, “generalist-first” and “topic-interest-first”, and balancing approaches like “equally-skilled-teams” and “high-expertise-teams”. The reported empirical insights can help to design IT systems that support team assembly according to different tactics.

ILLEGAL EXPORT-IMPORT OPERATIONS AS AN OBJECT OF RESEARCH IN THE SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF RESEARCHERS

The article provides a bibliometric analysis of publications on the queries of "illegal import operations" and illegal export operations during 1984-2021. Emphasis was placed on Scopus as it is the largest bibliographic database in the world, representing over 21,000 international scientific publishing houses. The work is devoted to the study of the application of bibliographic analysis as a quantitative approach in assessing the documentary and informational workflow, which makes it possible to carry out a formalized analysis of the results of scientific activity quite accurately. The main results demonstrate an increase the topic interest of illegal export-import operations in different social and economic areas and in different countries. The analysis of publications proves the lack of a literature review on the topic with the keywords illegal import operations and illegal export operations. It has also been found that bibliometric analysis is an effective tool that can be used for literature reviews across all branches of the social and economic sciences. The results obtained in this study provide additional information on the development of the topic of illegal export-import operations, sources of publications, and their dynamics, as well as justification for the development of a literature review as an obligatory part of scientific articles on the topic under study. Keywords: bibliometric analysis; Scopus database; illegal import transactions; illegal export transactions.

Incidental vocabulary learning and retention of EFL learners

Research addressing the effect of interest on learning has been thoroughly discussed in learning theory (Renninger et al., 2014). From this rich research field, topic interest has been put forward as a relevant variable in learning in general (Hidi, 2001; Renninger, 2009), and in L2 reading comprehension (Brantmeier, 2006; Eidswick, 2009). However, research focusing on the extent of its influence on L2 incidental vocabulary learning has been scarce (Lee & Pulido, 2017). Thus, this study sought to explore the relationship between topic interest and L2 vocabulary learning by asking 55 male EFL learners at a technological university in Chile to read texts in two conditions (high topic interest and low topic interest) and then assessing incidental learning and retention of twenty target words. Results suggest that topic interest influenced the vocabulary gains made by learners, and that the relationship between topic interest and vocabulary learning and retention can be mediated by dictionary look-up behaviour. Findings are discussed with a focus on the pedagogical actions that can increase learner topic interest.

Online Noise as Illustrated by Pitfalls and Biogeography Associated With Common Names for Puma concolor

Noise is the non-target search results that people encounter when searching for a particular topic of interest; it is also the cloud of distracting data that can obscure or deflect conservation communication. Online noise associated with large carnivores is particularly dense because their defining characteristics make them salient. Mountain lions (Puma concolor) exemplify noise associated with multiple vernaculars for a species in the crosshairs of conservation conundrums. We compared internet search results, Google Trends reflecting topic interest, use in science publications and sentiment in print and online media for P. concolor's most frequent vernacular names, “mountain lion,” “cougar,” “puma” and “Florida panther.” Puma and panther exhibited greater noise and salience than cougar or mountain lion, but, results for mountain lion, followed by cougar, yielded the highest biological relevance. Online sentiment negatively correlated with biological relevance, with positive sentiment highest for the noisiest vernaculars, puma and panther. As conservation practitioners, we must recognize that public outreach is part of our scientific agenda and be conscious of crafting communication that reaches and resonates with our intended audiences.

CLIL as a Balance for Female–Male Differences?

This study examines female–male differences in English writing outcomes for Taiwanese primary school learners enrolled in a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) program. Narrative and expository writing samples of 212 primary school students (Male = 103, Female = 109) in Taiwan were collected and scored using several measures including spelling accuracy, correct word sequences, lexical diversity, total t-units, and a holistic rubric for ideas. Students’ topic interest was also measured through a Likert-scale survey. The findings revealed differences between females and males and the two genres of writing. While there were statistical differences attributed to gender and topic interest variables for some writing measures, further analysis revealed that these effects were minimal in terms of practical significance. The paper raises questions about the relationship between female–male writing differences and CLIL and provides suggestions for future research to broaden our understanding and support diversity in the CLIL classroom.

Comparing Formative and Summative Cumulative Assessment: Two Field Experiments in an Applied University Engineering Course

Cumulative assessment refers to interspersed testing in which each assessment covers all previous content and the mean assessments’ grade weighs in for the final exam grade. The effect of cumulative assessment on motivation and performance might differ between summative (i.e. assessment grades weigh in for the final exam grade) and formative (i.e. the assessments grades do not weigh in) variants. The present study explored this hypothesis in two field experiments in a higher education course (Exp 1: n = 102; Exp 2: n = 88). Each experiment used a single-factor, between-subjects design with type of cumulative assessment (i.e. summative vs formative) as independent variable and motivation (Exp 1: self-study time, topic interest, perceived competence; Exp 2: preparation time and self-efficacy) and performance (Exp 2: cumulative assessment performance; Exp1 and Exp2: final exam grade and delayed test performance) as dependent variables. The results of both experiments reinforced each other. In the summative condition, the final exam grade was higher than in the formative condition. However, when the summative assessments were discarded from the final grade, this difference disappeared. Also, in both experiments, the conditions did not differ on motivation measures. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

Textbook-assigned and self-selected topics of Iranian male EFL learners: topic interest, topic familiarity, topic importance, and topic difficulty

In recent years, learner-centered teaching has emphasized the demand for making healthy environment where learners’ preferences, interests, personal experiences, cultural backgrounds and lifestyles are taken into account when making decisions about various characteristics of language learning/teaching The choice of topics, which are used in EFL discussion classes, is considered to play an important role in learners’ propensity to engage in a negotiation for meaning. This study was aimed to investigate the perception of Textbook-Assigned and Self-Selected Topics of Iranian male EFL Learners: topic interest, topic familiarity, topic importance, and topic difficulty based on correlational design. It was carried out with 200 male Intermediate EFL learners who were selected by convenience sampling. Although most teachers might be aware of the importance of a good assessment strategy on the topic interest and topic familiarity, rarely do they use it for topic importance and topic difficulty. The results of the study showed that Iranian male EFL learners mostly preferred the topics to be more interesting and familiar in both textbook-assigned (M = 3.1259, SD = .21553, Sig = .000) and self-selected topics (M = 4.0531, SD = .13334, Sig = .000). In addition, there was a significant difference between the learners’ perceptions of textbook-assigned and self-selected topics in terms of interest and familiarity, but less difference in terms of importance and difficulty. The findings of the study indicated that learners’ selection of their own topics can provide the potential implications for their willingness to participate in second and foreign language learning and take responsibility for their own learning process.

EFL Critical Reading Syllabus and Materials for Students of the English Department

The demand of a new model of syllabus and materials were implicitly required through the launching of KKNI-based Curriculum in Indonesia. Due to, finding the students’ needs and learning characteristic as the main consideration in developing them became the purpose of this current research. A qualitative research had been conducted to get the data needed by which two kinds of questionnaires were administered then analyzed qualitatively (Likert scale). The respondents involved were 132 students and the results dealt with the learning characteristics showed that the audio was 19.69%, the visual was 50.75%, and kinaesthetic was 29.54%. In relation to the students’ needs (four aspects), 1) necessities on topic interest like education (72%), culture (63%), and social life (45%); 2) background knowledge was categorized into good (57.25%), very good (28%), and not good (14.75%); 3) critical reading goals for both core and sub-skills very agree (42.71%), agree (30.14%), and not agree (27.14%); and 4) learning model tended the cooperative (27.25 very agree), (35.5 agree), (37.25 not agree). Thus, it could be concluded that the students’ learning style dominantly in visual way with cooperative learning model. In addition, the students were eager to have critical reading skills with sufficient prior knowledge but the topic is mostly in the area of education. It is recommended that in developing the syllabus and materials, the lecturers should consider both students’ characteristics and needs.

EFL CRITICAL READING SYLLABUS AND MATERIALS FOR STUDENTS OF THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

The demand of a new model of syllabus and materials were implicitly required through the launching of KKNI-based Curriculum in Indonesia. Due to, finding the students’ needs and learning characteristic as the main consideration in developing them became the purpose of this current research. A qualitative research had been conducted to get the data needed by which two kinds of questionnaires were administered then analyzed qualitatively (Likert scale). the respondents involved were 132 students and the results dealt with the learning characteristics showed that the audio was 19.69%, the visual was 50.75%, and khinesthetics was 29.54%. In relation to the students’ needs (four aspects), 1) necessities on topic interest like education (72%), culture (63%), and social life (45%); 2) background knowledge was categorized into good (57.25%), very good (28%), and not good (14.75%); 3) critical reading goals for both core and sub-skills very agree (42.71%), agree (30.14%), and not agree (27.14%); and 4) learning model tended the cooperative (27.25 very agree), (35.5 agree), (37.25 not agree). Thus, it could be concluded that the students’ learning style dominantly in visual way with cooperative learning model. In addition, the students were eager to have critical reading skills with sufficient prior knowledge but the topic is mostly in the area of education. It is recommended that in developing the syllabus and materials, the lecturers should consider both students’ characteristics and needs.