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This study examined relationships between important aspects of a university education and the assessment and development of generic skills. A sample of 323 students enrolled in single or double arts, engineering and/or science degrees from a research-intensive university in Australia were administered the Graduate Skills Assessment to measure four generic skills--critical thinking, interpersonal understandings, problem solving and written communication. As expected, students' grade point average was generally found to be significantly related to scores for all four skill scales both within each discipline area and across the total sample. Reporting of academic achievement through the GPA therefore provides some measure of students' generic skill levels. However, since relationships were modest, GPA should be considered an imperfect indicator of levels of generic skills attainment. In addition, we found only limited evidence that students' skill levels increased with progression through their studies, with study length being consistently related only to Problem Solving. Finally, our analyses revealed significant, interdisciplinary variations in students' skill scores. Results are discussed with respect to theoretical, practical and methodological implications.

Examined patterns of conceptual and procedural knowledge of addition in 5- to 8-year-olds. Found that children were more successful in noticing that addends had been reordered rather than decomposed and in noticing the decomposition of addends presented with objects rather than with symbols. Also found that profiles of procedural competence were associated with patterns of conceptual knowledge and with age; however, age and conceptual knowledge were not related. (Author/KB)

Investigates children's knowledge of concrete versions of additive composition, commutativity, and associativity. Reports that in study one, four-to five-year-olds (n=24) and five- to six-year-olds (n=25) judged the equivalence of conceptually related addition problems using groups of objects. States that in study two, five- to six-year-olds (n=45) judged related problems and solved addition problems. (CMK)

Examined the relationship between 6- to 8-year olds' conceptual understanding of additive composition, commutativity, and associativity principles and addition problem-solving procedures. Results revealed that conceptual understanding was related to using order-indifferent, decomposition, and retrieval strategies and speed and accuracy in solving unrelated problems. (Author/KB)

Patterns of conceptual and procedural knowledge of addition were examined in 5- to 8-year-olds (N = 80). Conceptual knowledge was measured by assessing children's responses to problems in which addends were reordered or decomposed and recombined. Problems were presented using abstract symbols, numbers, and physical objects. Children were more successful in noticing that addends had been reordered rather than decomposed and in noticing the decomposition of addends presented with objects rather than with symbols. Distinct profiles of procedural competence were derived from an analysis of children's problem-solving accuracy and strategies. Profiles were associated with patterns of conceptual knowledge and with age, although age and conceptual knowledge were not related. Findings highlight the usefulness of identifying profiles of procedural and conceptual knowledge for understanding the development of children's knowledge of addition.

Abstract Background Mathematical models of infection that consider targeted interventions are exquisitely dependent on the assumed mixing patterns of the population. We report on a pilot study designed to assess three different methods (one retrospective, two prospective) for obtaining contact data relevant to the determination of these mixing patterns. Methods 65 adults were asked to record their social encounters in each location visited during 6 study days using a novel method whereby a change in physical location of the study participant triggered data entry. Using a cross-over design, all participants recorded encounters on 3 days in a paper diary and 3 days using an electronic recording device (PDA). Participants were randomised to first prospective recording method. Results Both methods captured more contacts than a pre-study questionnaire, but ascertainment using the paper diary was superior to the PDA (mean difference: 4.52 (95% CI 0.28, 8.77). Paper diaries were found more acceptable to the participants compared with the PDA. Statistical analysis confirms that our results are broadly consistent with those reported from large-scale European based surveys. An association between household size (trend 0.14, 95% CI (0.06, 0.22), P < 0.001) and composition (presence of child 0.37, 95% CI (0.17, 0.56), P < 0.001) and the total number of reported contacts was observed, highlighting the importance of sampling study populations based on household characteristics as well as age. New contacts were still being recorded on the third study day, but compliance had declined, indicating that the optimal number of sample days represents a trade-off between completeness and quality of data for an individual. Conclusions The study's location-based reporting design allows greater scope compared to other methods for examining differences in the characteristics of encounters over a range of environments. Improved parameterisation of dynamic transmission models gained from work of this type will aid in the development of more robust decision support tools to assist health policy makers and planners.

The research reported in this paper was designed to explore the possibility that conceptually different forms of common-fraction understanding could be identified and that such forms may be associated with differences in fraction problem-solving performance. In particular, it was designed to explore the claim that fraction understanding is reflected in the referential adequacy of students' own diagrams and their judgements of the referential adequacy of a specially constructed set of diagrams of proper and improper fractions, and that such understanding is likely to have functional significance. In Study 1, 100 Grade 7 and 8 students were asked to draw diagrams representing five fractions (1/4, 2/5, 1/2, 2/3, 4/3). Referential adequacy was determined by how well drawings obeyed or violated relevant mathematical principles. Independent of grade or drawing convention used, referential adequacy was found to be related to problem-solving performance measures, suggesting that students' analogies reflect their understanding of fractions. In Study 2, 150 Grade 7 to 9 students drew diagrams of six fractions (1/ 4, 3/4, 2/5, 1/3, 4/3, 5/3), judged the appropriateness of a large set of visual analogies (diagrams) of common fractions, and completed a fraction problemsolving test. The analogy judgement task was designed to identify the range of interpretations of fractions judged acceptable; that is, to identify possible systematicities underlying the interpretations of fractions. The results show that (1) on the basis of their judgements, students can be assigned to a small number of theoretically defensible mental models of fraction understanding that vary in sophistication, and (2) there is a predictable relationship between students' mental models, the quality of their drawings, and their problem-solving competence. Both studies support the claim that students' productions and judgements of the referential adequacy of fraction analogies reflect their conceptual competence and that fraction problem-solving competence reflects conceptual as well as procedural competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of social roles from the perspectives of individual actors, and the relation of graph homomorphisms to semi group homomorphisms, have been the two most prominent topics to emerge from the recent resurgence of progress made on the algebraic analysis of social networks. Through our central construction, the cumulated person hierarchy, we present a framework for elaborating and extending these two lines of research. We focus on each actor in turn as ego, and we articulate what we believe to be the fundamental duality of persons and their algebras. We derive graph and semigroup homomorphisms for three algebras containing 81, 43, and 93 elements, respectively. Throughout, our discussion of theoretical issues is oriented toward an empirical application to the Padgett data set on conspiracy and faction in Renaissance Florence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to the December 1988 issue of the journal "Social Networks."

Contrasting accounts of the common structure in the blockmodels for two community elites (Breiger and Pattison, 1978; McConaghy, 1980) are shown to follow from two distinct means of interpreting the semigroup representation of role structure in a single population. The two candidate sets of interpretative features for the semigroup are the homomorphisms which in admits and the equations by which it is defined. These alternative descriptions lead naturally to the respective constructions of the joint homomorphic image (Boorman and White, 1976)and the common role structure semigroup (Bonacich, 1980: McConaghy, 1980) as representatives of common structure in two populations. It is argued that the use of descriptive features in the form of homomorphic images, in general, and the joint homomorphic image, in particular, defines the potentially more useful approach, primarily because homomorphic images of the semigroup may be given relational referents in the generating blockmodel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockmodel analysis offers a perspective for developing operational theories of role interlock across multiple networks. We identify precisely those features of role interlock that are shared by the elites of two small cities. This joint role structure is then interpreted with the aid of an algebraic model that we formulate on the basis of Granovetter's (1973) “strength of weak ties” argument. Our discussion illustrates the operationalization of substantive and theoretical concepts in the form of idealized role structures, and their application via blockmodel analysis to observed network data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the assumption of local independence un derlies all latent trait theories in mental testing, it has rarely been empirically examined. In this study of a clustered item test (the Australian Scholastic Aptitude Test), a loglinear modeling approach was used to ex amine the conditional independence of items both within and between clusters. In general, although rela tionships between items were usually positive (as re quired for theories involving monotone item trace lines), conditional independence was not found. De partures from independence were more marked in items within clusters rather than between clusters, and also among items based on mathematical rather than verbal material. Another finding was the tendency for departures from independence to increase with ability (as measured by the score on other items). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]