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Ruscio, Seaman, D'Oriano, Stremlo, and Mahalchik (this issue) evaluate 22 bibliometric indicators, including conventional measures, like the number of publications, the "h" index, and many "h" index variants. To assess the quality of the indicators, their well-justified criteria encompass conceptual, empirical, and practical issues: ease of understanding, accuracy of calculation, effects on incentives, influence of extreme scores, and validity. Although they found that some indicators are more attractive for research evaluation purposes than others, the correlation between most of the indicators is (very) high. A generally high correlation between the indicators points out a redundant contribution each to each other. Calculating a comprehensive metaanalysis, Bornmann and colleagues (Bornmann, Mutz, Hug, & Daniel, 2011) came to a very similar result: Only a few "h" index variants make a nonredundant contribution to the "h" index; most of the variants correlate very highly with the "h" index. They presented the first metaanalysis of studies that computed correlations between the "h" index and variants of the "h" index that have been proposed and discussed in the literature. Thus, the study was not about the added value of the "h" index or "h" index variants to other bibliometric indices, e.g., total number of citations. They tested whether there is a generally high (or low) correlation between the "h" index and the variants. The metaanalysis included a total of 135 different bivariate correlation coefficients between the "h" index and an "h" index variant (such as the "g" index). In total, they analyzed 37 different "h" variants. Their results show, with an overall mean value between 0.8 and 0.9, there is a high correlation between the "h" index and the "h" index variants. According to Navon (2009), "high correlations indicate that despite the differences in how the metrics are calculated, there is too much redundancy in the information they yield." Even if the "actual" correlations might be higher than those claimed in the original papers introducing the new "h"-type indices due to systematic sampling selection effects, a mean correlation coefficient of between 0.8 and 0.9 is still high and might not justify the development of more and more "h" index variants. However, not all "h" index variants have a high correlation with the "h" index. Their results indicate that some "h" index variants have been developed that have a relatively low correlation with the "h" index, and it can be assumed that they can make a nonredundant contribution to the "h" index. These variants are mainly the MII (Sypsa & Hatzakis, 2009) and the "m" index (Bornmann, Mutz, & Daniel, 2008). For evaluative purposes, then, the "h" index could be combined with these "h" index variants to better depict research performance bibliometrically. (Contains 1 table.)

This paper presents a compilation of personal reflections from 66 contributors on the impact of, and responses to, COVID-19 in accounting education in 45 different countries around the world. It reveals a commonality of issues, and a variability in responses, many positive outcomes, including the creation of opportunities to realign learning and teaching strategies away from the comfort of traditional formats, but many more that are negative, primarily relating to the impact on faculty and student health and well-being, and the accompanying stress. It identifies issues that need to be addressed in the recovery and redesign stages of the management of this crisis, and it sets a new research agenda for studies in accounting education.

Both parts of the author's past--a concern with terrorism and with the education of future agents of the state who will be expected to curb, if not to eliminate, it--contribute to what he wants to say in this essay. He seeks to make six points: (1) Racial profiling is not a discrete issue but an instance of a more pervasive racism that is evident in the overzealousness of law enforcement, the discrimination inherent in the criminal justice system and the stratagems of the so-called "war on terror"; (2) The issue of racism is also connected to historical, legal and political events which cannot easily be isolated and which confound efforts to make it into an issue of clear ideological distinctions between right-wing and left-wing politics; (3) Much of the debate over racial profiling is compromised because it takes place within an ideological context of hegemonic liberalism which begets false and futile attempts to balance civil liberties with security; (4) To overcome this bogus debate, it is necessary to gain perspective by examining the situation from a different perspective and, since Marxism is at least temporarily disreputable, individuals must look elsewhere; (5) Above all, individuals must recognize the ubiquity of technology, not as a set of instruments or, worse, devices that are intended to achieve conscious human purposes, but as determinants of what those purposes are; and (6) At a time when Marxian social theories are in at least in temporary eclipse, there is much to be gained by paying provisional attention to the preoccupations of traditional conservatism as a means to begin the critical interrogation of the modern project and its implications for thought about technology and human rights. (Contains 1 endnote.)

Examines the theme of learning outside of the home society through the use of ethnography and the techniques of field study for students living and working in Mexico, Austria, and Germany. Demonstrates through the observations of students how effective the use of field research methods can be in learning about social relations, cultural traditions, and social habits. (Author/VWL)

This paper presents a workshop report that summarises the potentially far-reaching deliberations and results of a conference of experts in doctoral education from around the world. The conference was organised jointly by the U.S. Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education (CIRGE) at the University of Washington, Seattle and the German International Centre for Higher Education Research (INCHER) at the University of Kassel. Participants discussed critical issues in the globalisation of doctoral education, including global inequalities, diversity in types of students and modes of study, and intellectual risk-taking, and they sought to develop proposals for policy. The focus of the conference was on the research doctorate. Held in Kassel, Germany, March 23-27, 2009, the workshop focused on the three broad themes of internationalisation and inequality, diversity and intellectual risk-taking. This essay reports on the activities, discussions, and conclusions of the workshop. (Contains 2 notes.)

In recent years, it has become an issue of growing concern that, despite undiminished enthusiasm in the research community, the application of corpus tools and resources in the classroom remains limited. In this paper, I will argue that focusing on the role of the teacher in the process of using corpora in the classroom is an essential step towards popularising this approach. It is vital that future language teachers can discover corpora and concordances as part of their initial training from the perspectives as learner "and" as teacher. To this end, I will present and discuss a case study in which student teachers were introduced to corpus analysis and trained how to teach with corpora. Data on the reflections and opinions provided by the student teachers will highlight the significance and potential of such a course. (Contains 3 notes.)

It is surprising that there is a young academic in 2015 working intensively on the German philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) and his concept of "Bildung". In times where--as the author states herself--educational systems globally tend to follow neoliberal principles and where the visibility, commodification, and instrumentalization of knowledge produce a "culture of performativity" (Masschelein & Simons, 2006, p. 19) within a so-called knowledge society, Humboldt's ideas about "Bildung" seem very far away from the current mainstream thinking and policy making. But maybe it is just because of this current dominance of neoliberalism in education that it is worth remembering a philosopher and linguist who developed a neo-humanistic concept of "Bildung" which emphasizes a process of holistic growth, self-realization of the individual as an entirety, freedom, and self-understanding as well as a sense of social responsibility, and which puts the development of the individual's unique potential and self at the center of educational processes. In her paper the author not only analyses Humboldt's philosophical concept of "Bildung" itself but traces the process of its institutionalization in which Humboldt himself, having become a Secretary of Education under Frederick III, was actively involved. Heidt analyses how the concept of "Bildung" lost the impetus of freedom and autonomous agency and became an instrument for selection and an agent for social and cultural reproduction, discipline, and control. Today's concept of "Bildung" is very much--according to Heidt--influenced by neoliberal thinking and so much altered as to become hardly recognizable. For Heidt, "Bildung"--similar to Humboldt's concept but at the same time radically transformed--can only be found outside of educational institutions, e.g., in social networks or street art in cosmopolitan big cities. "Bildung", according to the author's main hypothesis, paradoxically no longer takes place in globally stratified educational institutions, but in a kind of alternative counter world and very much through the medium of language.

In this issue of the "American Journal of Health Education," Burke et al. provide a case review of an international videoconference between a U.S. and a German university. The authors highlighted the benefits and opportunities of international videoconferencing as well as the relevant limitations. Videoconferencing is an interactive tool that incorporates audio, video, computing, and communications technologies to allow people in different locations to collaborate face-to-face, in real time, and share all types of information including data, documents, sound and picture. In essence, videoconferencing removes the barrier of distance that separates people. A videoconference allows one to take part in live video/audio presentations and discussions, etc. between two or more settings in nearby or remote places around the world. In this reaction brief, the author provides further insight about the benefits of distance learning and videoconferencing. From his experience and that of others, he offers some tips for readers considering videoconferencing with international sites.

The paper looks at part-time higher educational services for students in the educational systems of Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A comparative examination of the nature and importance of part-time higher education is then presented. (DB)

Rosner and Kochanski (2009) noticed an inconsistency in the mathematical statement of the Law of Categorical Judgment and derived "the valid equation, the Law of Categorical Judgment (Corrected)" (p. 125). The purpose of this comment is to point out that the law can be corrected in many different ways, leading to substantially different equations. The different versions have different consequences for the predicted distributions of the responses and, hence, for fitting real data. Some of these consequences are unexpected and sometimes undesirable. Researchers should be aware of the different possibilities as they may lead to pronouncedly different accounts of given data. (Contains 4 footnotes, 1 table, and 2 figures.)

Borje Holmberg is Swedish and has been active in distance education as a theorist and practitioner for more than fifty years. He is the former president of the Wilhelm-Buchner Hochschule, a distance teaching university in Germany. Here, Holmberg is interviewed by William C. Diehl, the Interviews Editor for "The American Journal of Distance Education".

Historians of American education readily acknowledge that in the mid-19th century the German university and academic ideal rose in prominence among American academicians, who then worked diligently to replicate the German university model in the United States. During this same time, however, many more Americans were exposed to a different conception of higher education, one that arguably impacted perceptions of the college experience as much or more than models of German scholarship. "Tom Brown's School Days," followed shortly by "Tom Brown at Oxford," became widely popular readings for American youth in the late 19th century. The books chronicled the educational and athletic exploits of Tom Brown as he rose from the fields of Rugby through Oxford. It spawned several American imitators far more popular than Brown. First Frank Merriwell in the 1890s and then Dink Stover in the new century, planting a firm idea of what the ideal manly college experience in America could be. Examining how American magazines used comparisons to foreign higher education provides an exceptional window for illuminating the broader phenomenon of how the mass media in the United States constructed the unique vision of the middle-class man and the college experience, integrating the two meaningfully for the first time. The author discusses the role that magazines play in shaping not only the place of higher education in American life, but also in forging a new ideal of success for middle-class American men in an emerging corporate age. (Contains 4 notes.)

A central question in online human sentence comprehension is, "How are linguistic relations established between different parts of a sentence?" Previous work has shown that this dependency resolution process can be computationally expensive, but the underlying reasons for this are still unclear. This article argues that dependency resolution is mediated by cue-based retrieval, constrained by independently motivated working memory principles defined in a cognitive architecture. To demonstrate this, this article investigates an unusual instance of dependency resolution, the processing of negative and positive polarity items, and confirms a surprising prediction of the cue-based retrieval model: Partial-cue matches--which constitute a kind of similarity-based interference--can give rise to the intrusion of ungrammatical retrieval candidates, leading to both processing slow-downs and even errors of judgment that take the form of illusions of grammaticality in patently ungrammatical structures. A notable achievement is that good quantitative fits are achieved without adjusting the key model parameters. (Contains 5 tables, 4 figures, and 3 notes.)

It is undeniable that in Germany today higher education (HE) cannot be as it was in Humboldt's day 200 years ago. The mass university, together with social and politico-educational challenges, has created problems which require fundamental and lasting solutions. The key question is: how can the transformation from the industrial age to the knowledge society be organised? In relation to HE, European politicians have tackled this issue by adopting the principles of the Anglo-Saxon system. This transformation is not fully accepted, or is actually rejected, by a high percentage of students and academic staff. The following three aspects are to varying degrees relevant to this: (1) the European HE system will be fully implemented by 2010; (2) difficulties of adaptation and adjustment are increasing, so that the whole process of reform is undermined; and (3) as the advantages and disadvantages of the Bologna Process become clearer, they give rise to separate national processes of reform. The Bologna Process does not have an end in itself. It has no theoretical framework. The original intention was to create a unified European area for higher education in order to harmonise HE systems. Nowadays this development includes the efforts of HEIs to increase competitiveness and raise the profile of European HE. Only in this way can Europe prepare for worldwide competition. In this article, the author discusses why these aims cannot be achieved by means of reforms at national rather than European level and the disadvantages of the Bologna model.

Since the classical authors of the nineteenth century, the explanation of macro-social phenomena has been considered as the essential epistemic achievement, hence the "raison d'etre," of comparative analysis in the social sciences. In practice, however, the claims of comparative social enquiry for providing convincing explanations are not easily kept. Their realization depends upon quasi-ontological understandings of causation, and on varying conceptions of social theory. The article resumes and tackles these issues while trying to avoid the pitfalls of both positivist orthodoxy and historicist methodology. In so doing, the essay draws heavily on Max Weber's model of "singular causal explanation." It is based on a dynamic and "triadic" scheme of causal relationships--and of causal analysis--that deals in "courses" of events, and in "divergences" between alternative paths and outcomes. The model is both reinterpreted in the light of more recent epistemological debates and illustrated by examples taken from the author's own contributions to comparative social and intellectual history. (Contains 1 figure and 1 note.)

This essay considers recent implications of "new public management" (NPM) strategies for the universities of Germany. It argues that NPM poses a threat to the traditional values of the academic profession, and asks what the universities should do to restore public trust in their methods and management.

To examine Heidegger's pedagogy is to be invited into a particular era and cultural reality--starting in Weimar Germany and progressing into the rise and fall of the Third Reich. In his attempt to reform the German university in a strictly hierarchical, authoritarian and nationalistic mold, Heidegger addressed one group of students and professors and not another. The petit-bourgeois student and the future philosophers he invited with his "logic of recruitment" into the corps of instructors, would share his coded language with its built-in taboos and censorship. The result was a rhetoric of absolute self-reference and a semiotic of pure propaganda, based on the evocation of the ancient Greeks in which the philosopher meant to project all that was properly Germanic. Heidegger's rhetoric is exclusionary; its politics and its philosophy are interpenetrating. His lecture courses grew increasingly poeticized, and thus mired in ambiguity, evasion, elision, avoidance, grandiloquence. Parallels are drawn in this essay between Heidegger and our time. Is Heidegger's insistence on autocratic controls within the German university comparable to the corporate positions taken today by some educators? How does the shifting relation between disciplines affect the role of the specialist? How might the sciences morales or humanities, along with the much maligned "humanism", be redefined morally and holistically?

This article presents the author's critique of Anthony F. J. van Raan's article titled, "Measurement of Central Aspects of Scientific Research: Performance, Interdisciplinarity, Structure." van Raan makes an excellent case for using bibliometric data to measure some central aspects of scientific research and to construct indicators of groups: research groups, university departments, and institutes. He claims that, next to peer review, these indicators are indispensable for evaluating research and can be used in parallel with peer review processes. By way of an example, van Raan provides a table containing nine indicators for a German medical research institute. Two of these indicators--articles (P) and citations (C)--are established proxy measures for the size of a group and the impact of its published research (Katz & Hicks, 1997). The ratio between citations and articles (CPP) and the ratios between CPP and the mean Journal Citation Score and between the field-based world average and the Germany-specific world average--which are uniquely defined CPP reference values--are used to construct a set of indicators that van Raan suggests can be used to assess international research performance. This commentary focuses solely on the use of bibliometric indicators to compare international research performance. It addresses the fundamental question of whether CPP or measures like CPP can be used to accurately compare the performance of groups of different sizes. (Contains 2 figures and 4 footnotes.)

This article argues (a) that universities are profoundly ambivalent institutions; (b) that this ambivalence explains a great deal about their behavior that would otherwise remain inexplicable; (c) that one of the most striking manifestations of this ambivalence can be found in universities' attitudes towards change; and (d) that this ambivalence has its roots in a fundamental tension in modern society about the university's purposes. There is good reason to believe that this set of observations holds true for universities everywhere, albeit to different degrees and in different ways. As a case in point, this article focuses on the process of change (and non-change) in German higher education over the past ten years.

A new law on higher education came into effect in North Rhine-Westphalia on 1 April 2000, setting a new direction, based in law, that should and will lay the foundations for a revamping of higher education in this state. Since the 1990s, the critical debates that are part of the general German discussion on higher education have shown a more emphatic turn toward business. This has altered permanently and decisively the traditional notion of the university. The traditional autonomy of the university is reinterpreted to embrace an "orientation to the client and to demand," but it is also reinforced structurally by legislation giving a broader range of action in "pedagogical work, more freedom in matters of financing, administration and staffing, and more cooperation with partners close to ... colleges and universities, as well as more competition among the latter themselves". The quality of research and teaching is situated, as part and parcel of internationalization and globalization, in the context of Europewide and indeed worldwide competition. In this article, the author discusses the opportunities and risks of competition in higher education. [This report was translated by Stephen D. Naron.]

In this article, the author discusses the incentive system in German higher education. He states that the underdeveloped incentive and management mechanisms in German higher education result in mistaken allocations in the higher education system in general and in some individual institutions in particular. He believes that the only way to optimize processes or resource utilization is to adopt more elements of competition in the higher education system, through predominantly positive sanctions of services. In science, incentive systems should be nonmaterial, not just financial, that is, they should operate via improvements in working conditions. Financial inputs concentrate on financing higher education itself and paying employee salaries. Transparent, scientifically sound procedures for allocating funds to higher education can have an incentive effect. The days of watering-can funding or funding on the basis of some incidental, historically evolved "need" are over, henceforth, funding should be governed by universally agreed guidelines oriented to the compass and quality of a university's performance. [This report was translated by Stephen Naron.]

Describes two study abroad programs based on service learning at the Centers of Lutheran Reformation in Germany. Participants not only fulfilled community needs but also forged individual relationships that helped them reflect on global and economic issues that they could not have understood from classroom lectures alone. (Author/VWL)

Discusses institutional constraints in the foreign language and intercultural learning process within the framework of an online collaboration project between a German and a U.S. university. Shows the benefits and constraints of such a collaboration and provides suggestions for the improvement of similar international computer-supported learning environments. (AS)

Focuses on the experience of U.S. soldiers during World War I. Addresses topics, such as the difficulties and horrors the soldiers dealt with in the trenches, the problems with untrained soldiers, the sickness and injuries that affected soldiers, and heroes of the war. (CMK)

Draws on experiences from a 7-week exchange between students learning German at an American college and advanced students of English at a German university. Maps out the benefits to using a MOO (multiple user domains object-oriented) for language learning: a student-centered learning environment structured by such objectives as peer teaching, autonomous learning, content-based instruction, individualized learning, and play. (Author/VWL)

Cooperation between university and industry for technology transfer is not only useful for industry but also for students. Describes ways in which students at the Fraunhofer Institute are involved in industrial partnerships and the benefits they gain from their experiences. (Author/WRM)

Discusses Germany's educational system, highlighting demands for more school autonomy. Over a decade ago, there were calls for more school autonomy, but only lately have educators and researchers realized this demand is in line with political discussions on the issue, which are linked to the European context in which educational policies are moving toward autonomous schools as a market enterprise. (SM)

This personal response to German history by a professor attending a major conference at the University of Heidelberg reflects on the country's long history of education and research, the role of language in history, a speech urging tolerance by the Dutch woman who protected Anne Frank's family, and her reactions to a visit to the Dachau concentration camp site. (DB)

An author who comes from the German higher education system offers insights into how it differs from the American higher education system and how certain undesirable characteristics may be avoided in the United States. Topics discussed include student independence, lack of extracurricular activities and campus community, tendency toward overspecialization, and educational and social conservatism. (Originally published in 1934) (MSE)

Discusses the work of Frenchman Charles Perrault, the seminal figure in fairy tales, and puts it in context of the French fairy tale fashion. Describes how the fairy tale came to England. Describes how the Germans revived the fairy tale at the end of the 18th century, and discusses the work of the Brothers Grimm. (SR)

Begins by questioning the significance of the form of institution in which teacher training occurs. Outlines reasons for doubting arguments against transferring teacher education out of universities. Presents three possible politico-educational strategies for reforming teacher training: (1) administrative, (2) professional-political, and (3) policy consulting by experts. (DSK)

Argues that media pedagogics constitutes a discipline of media sciences and of media culture; however, dialog across the boundaries between various fields and branches is problematic. Sketches different phases of a virtual dialog between media pedagogics and media production to illustrate the gap and the importance of bridging it. (DSK)

Makes a plea for reading authentic "Jugendliteratur" in the foreign-language classroom. Focuses on the reasons for inclusions of this literature, discusses some of the reasons for its omission, and offers solutions to the problems perceived. Strategies for reading whole texts are shared and applied to the reading of "Oya" by Karin Konig, Hanne Straube, and Kamil Taylan. (Author/VWL)