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Introduction: This study investigates the intricate relationship between parents' education anxiety and children's learning anxiety, examining the mediating role of parenting style and the moderating effect of extracurricular tutoring. Methods: Utilizing data from the "Survey of Parents and Students in Primary and Secondary Schools," the study employs stratified sampling (n = 3,298) and various psychological scales to measure education anxiety, parenting styles, and extracurricular tutoring. Results: This study reveals that parents' education anxiety significantly influences children's learning anxiety, with a notable positive correlation (r = 0.301**). Parenting styles particularly rejection and overprotection style increase this anxiety, while emotional warmth style decreases it. Academic tutoring serves as a moderator, reducing the impact of parental anxiety on children's learning anxiety (β = -0.033, p < 0.05). Discussion: The study underscores the importance of addressing internal family dynamics to alleviate education anxiety. It advocates for a balanced approach to tutoring, emphasizing the benefits of arts and sports activities in reducing learning anxiety. Parents should be encouraged to adopt emotionally warm parenting styles and to engage their children in a variety of extracurricular activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Competition between academic institutions leads to tuition escalation. • A feedback theory of college competition. • A duopoly model of two colleges that compete for rankings. • Feedback economics applies system dynamics to economic problems. • Intense competition between academic institutions threatens sustainability of higher education. In this article, we develop a feedback theory that includes reinforcing and balancing feedback effects that emerge when colleges compete for reputation, applicants, and tuition revenue. The feedback theory is replicated in a formal duopoly model consisting of two competing colleges. An independent ranking entity determines the relative order of the colleges. College applicants choose between the two colleges based on the rankings and the financial aid offered by the colleges. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that competition lowers prices and benefits consumers, our simulations show that competition between academic institutions for resources and reputation leads to tuition escalation that negatively affects students and their families. Four of the five scenarios – rankings, a capital campaign, facilities improvements, and an excellence campaign – increase college tuition, institutional debt, and expenditures per student; only the scenario of ignoring the rankings decreases these measures. By referring to the feedback structure of academic competition, the article makes several recommendations for controlling tuition inflation. This article contributes to the literature on the economics of higher education and illustrates the value of feedback economics in developing economic theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Physical Education / Tiyu Xuekan is the property of Journal of Physical Education Editorial Office and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Science Olympiad is a K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) competition that engages approximately 7,000 teams across the U.S. in individual and team challenges at regional, state, and national levels. Science Olympiad began expanding to include elementary students in 2008. Yet, little is known about the adults who volunteer to coach elementary Science Olympiad teams or their coaching motivations. The purpose of this study was to investigate who coached elementary Science Olympiad teams, what motivated them to volunteer, and how their participation influenced their science teaching self-confidence, knowledge, and practices. This mixed-methods study investigated 125 Elementary Science Olympiad coaches' beliefs in the southeastern U.S. Survey items were based on the Coach Motivation Questionnaire (CMQ). Open-response questions following the survey items were coded in two ways; inductively and based on a priori motivational codes. Participant coaches were most likely to be teachers (92%), female (85%), and White (85%). Survey findings indicate that coaches' most significant motivating factors were intrinsic (M = 4.33/5); minor differences were based on gender, role, and length of time coaching. The qualitative responses supported the survey findings and gave more insight into teacher-coaches' thinking. The coaching experience had many positive effects on the teachers, such as enhancing their science and pedagogical content knowledge in science and other subjects, strongly influencing their self-confidence, and increasing their use of hands-on science and STEM activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to reveal the academic leaders' mastery level in emerging Saudi universities of tacit knowledge management skills, and testing the relationship between mastery levels and achieving a competitive advantage. The study is based on the analytical descriptive approach, and the questionnaire is applied as a data collection tool on a random sample numbered 330 of teaching staff at Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, the study population, totaling 2283. Findings showed that (a) the academic leaders' mastery level of tacit knowledge management skills at university was high, (b) there was a positive relationship between mastery level and achieving a competitive advantage, and (c) there were no statistically significant differences about mastery level due to the variable effect (college type) or (academic rank) or (the nature of work), with statistically significant differences due to the variable effect (gender) in favor of males. Regarding achieving a competitive advantage, the study revealed that there were no statistically significant differences due to (college type) and (academic rank) variables, with statistically significant differences due to the variable effect (gender) in favor of males and the variable effect (the nature of work), in favor of contractors. The researcher recommended providing the current and the second class of leaders with tacit knowledge management skills and enacting a clear law to protect intellectual capital from strict restrictions by toxic, dictatorial, or bureaucratic leaderships and from the misuse of rigid systems of accountability or traditional control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to address an important gap in the existent knowledge about the development of the Romanian research system by looking at a very specific population of young scholars who participated in the national competition for postdoctoral grants (2016) which included over 900 participants. The paper is structured by two main research objectives. Firstly, the analysis if focused on differences between scientific fields by looking at research entities which host young scholars’ grant proposals, gender balance, young scholars’ academic performance measured through a standardized indicator (Google Scholar H index), share of people trained abroad, and information about the evaluation process. Secondly, a linear regression model is built for the relationship between research proposal’s evaluation score and a series of individuals’ characteristics and structural factors associated to entities which host young scholars’ research proposals. An original database derived from individuals’ CVs allows us to test a series of hypothesis and to reveal significant predictors for grant application’s evaluation score. For instance, individuals’ evaluation score is positively influenced by scholars’ higher Google Scholar H Index, short-term and long-term experiences of formal education or training abroad. At the same time, younger participants and women researchers have statistically significant higher scores for their proposals.

Modeling human motor control and predicting how humans will move in novel environments is a grand scientific challenge. Researchers in the fields of biomechanics and motor control have proposed and evaluated motor control models via neuromechanical simulations, which produce physically correct motions of a musculoskeletal model. Typically, researchers have developed control models that encode physiologically plausible motor control hypotheses and compared the resulting simulation behaviors to measurable human motion data. While such plausible control models were able to simulate and explain many basic locomotion behaviors (e.g. walking, running, and climbing stairs), modeling higher layer controls (e.g. processing environment cues, planning long-term motion strategies, and coordinating basic motor skills to navigate in dynamic and complex environments) remains a challenge. Recent advances in deep reinforcement learning lay a foundation for modeling these complex control processes and controlling a diverse repertoire of human movement; however, reinforcement learning has been rarely applied in neuromechanical simulation to model human control. In this paper, we review the current state of neuromechanical simulations, along with the fundamentals of reinforcement learning, as it applies to human locomotion. We also present a scientific competition and accompanying software platform, which we have organized to accelerate the use of reinforcement learning in neuromechanical simulations. This "Learn to Move" competition was an official competition at the NeurIPS conference from 2017 to 2019 and attracted over 1300 teams from around the world. Top teams adapted state-of-the-art deep reinforcement learning techniques and produced motions, such as quick turning and walk-to-stand transitions, that have not been demonstrated before in neuromechanical simulations without utilizing reference motion data. We close with a discussion of future opportunities at the intersection of human movement simulation and reinforcement learning and our plans to extend the Learn to Move competition to further facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration in modeling human motor control for biomechanics and rehabilitation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current research aims to identify, Academic competition anxiety among distinguished students. Social support for outstanding students, to identify the correlation between academic competition anxiety and social support among distinguished and non-distinguished students. The research identified -distinguished students in secondary schools within the General Directorate of Education of Rusafa II and III in Baghdad, for the academic year (2020-2021). The researcher built a measure of academic competition anxiety by relying on the Martens model, whose number of items reached (30) items in three areas (cognitive), the number of items (10) items and (physical), the number of items (10) and (self-confidence) and the number of items (10) Paragraphs, and the researcher also adopted the House Scale for Social Attribution, consisting of (30) items that include four (emotional) domains, and the items of this domain have reached (8) items (performative), and the items of this field have reached (7) items and (informational) and it has reached Paragraphs of this field (8) paragraphs And (evaluative), and the paragraphs of this field reached (8) paragraphs, and the researcher extracted the psychometric characteristics and then applied them to the basic research sample of (200) male and female students who were randomly identified from secondary schools for the distinguished and distinguished and for the nondistinguished and distinguished, and after conducting statistical methods On occasion, the research. Reached the results, Existence of academic competition anxiety among distinguished students. The presence of social support for distinguished students. There is no correlation between academic competition anxiety and social support among distinguished students and by gender (males, females). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyberspace security is a matter of national security,and the talent cultivation is of top priority.Based on the experience of developing the first-class cyber security college of Beihang University,this paper analyzes some common issues,and discusses the ideas,mechanisms and patterns of cyberspace security talents cultivation from the aspects of the talents selection,curriculum system,comprehensive training platform,practical training and academic competitions.It may provide a reference for the training of cyber security professionals.

Cyberspace security is a matter of national security, and the talent cultivation is of top priority. Based on the experience of developing the first-class cyber security college of Beihang University, this paper analyzes some common issues, and discusses the ideas, mechanisms and patterns of cyberspace security talents cultivation from the aspects of the talents selection, curriculum system, comprehensive training platform, practical training and academic competitions. It may provide a reference for the training of cyber security professionals.

This study sought to address an important gap in the existent knowledge about the development of the Romanian research system by looking at a very specific population of young scholars who participated in the national competition for postdoctoral grants (2016) which included over 900 participants. The paper is structured by two main research objectives. Firstly, the analysis if focused on differences between scientific fields by looking at research entities which host young scholars' grant proposals, gender balance, young scholars' academic performance measured through a standardized indicator (Google Scholar H index), share of people trained abroad, and information about the evaluation process. Secondly, a linear regression model is built for analysing the relationship between research proposal's evaluation score and a series of individuals' characteristics and structural factors associated to entities which host young scholars' research proposals. An original database derived from individuals' CVs allows us to test a series of hypothesis and to reveal significant predictors for grant application's evaluation score. For instance, individuals' evaluation score is positively influenced by scholars' higher Google Scholar H Index, short-term and long- term experiences of formal education or training abroad. At the same time, younger participants and women researchers have statistically significant higher scores for their proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to examine the academic leaders' mastery level in emerging Saudi universities of intangibles management skills and explore the relationship between mastery levels and achieving a competitive advantage. A total of 330 randomly selected teaching staff members at Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University responded to a questionnaire developed by the researcher. Findings showed that (a) the academic leaders' mastery level of intangibles knowledge management skills at university was high, (b) there was a positive relationship between mastery level and achieving a competitive advantage, and (c) there was no statistically significant difference about mastery level due to college type or academic rank or the nature of work while there was a statistically significant difference due to gender in favor of males. Regarding achieving a competitive advantage, the study revealed that there were no statistically significant differences due to college type and academic rank while there was a statistically significant difference due to gender in favor of males and the nature of work in favor of expatriates. The researcher recommended providing the current and the second class of leaders with intangibles management skills and enacting a clear law to protect intellectual capital from strict restrictions by toxic, dictatorial, or bureaucratic leaderships and from the misuse of rigid systems of accountability or traditional censorship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study investigates the intricate relationship between parents' education anxiety and children's learning anxiety, examining the mediating role of parenting style and the moderating effect of extracurricular tutoring., Methods: Utilizing data from the "Survey of Parents and Students in Primary and Secondary Schools," the study employs stratified sampling ( n  = 3,298) and various psychological scales to measure education anxiety, parenting styles, and extracurricular tutoring., Results: This study reveals that parents' education anxiety significantly influences children's learning anxiety, with a notable positive correlation ( r  = 0.301 ** ). Parenting styles particularly rejection and overprotection style increase this anxiety, while emotional warmth style decreases it. Academic tutoring serves as a moderator, reducing the impact of parental anxiety on children's learning anxiety ( β  = -0.033, p  < 0.05)., Discussion: The study underscores the importance of addressing internal family dynamics to alleviate education anxiety. It advocates for a balanced approach to tutoring, emphasizing the benefits of arts and sports activities in reducing learning anxiety. Parents should be encouraged to adopt emotionally warm parenting styles and to engage their children in a variety of extracurricular activities., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Yin, Zhang and Chen.)

This paper investigates the impact of publication pressure on the ethics and the scientific integrity in the domain of mathematics and of the arts. Both research fields are specific in their methodology, being that they do not start from a classical hypothesis and researchers in these areas are not knowing what the outcome will be. The research design is open, and creativity is a main part of the research investigation. Both research fields do not rely on empirical cases nor on data collection or data handling. This could be a reason why mathematics and arts seem to be less subject to scientific misconduct. After presenting the (inter)national regulations on ethics and integrity, we will investigate a philosophical analysis in which we consider possible influences from publication pressure that became widespread over all disciplines. We will clarify if and how mathematics and the arts are sensitive to scientific research misconduct or questionable research practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As compared to continuing-generation students, first-generation students are struggling more at university. In the present article, we question the unconditional nature of such a phenomenon and argue that it depends on structural competition. Indeed, most academic departments use harsh selection procedure all throughout the curriculum, fostering between-student competition. In these departments, first-generation students tend to suffer from a lack of student-institution fit, that is, inconsistencies with the competitive institution's culture, practices, and identity. However, one might contend that in less competitive academic departments continuing-generation students might be the ones experiencing a lack of fit. Using a cross-sectional design, we investigated the consequences of such a context- and category-dependent lack of fit on the endorsement of scholastically adaptive goals. We surveyed N = 378 first- and continuing-generation students from either a more competitive or a less competitive department in their first or final year of bachelor’s study. In the more competitive department, first-to-third year decrease of mastery goals (i.e., the desire to learn) was found to be steeper for first- than for continuing-generation students. In the less competitive department, the reversed pattern was found. Moreover, first-to-third year decrease of performance goals (i.e., the desire to outperform others) was found to be steeper within the less competitive department but did not depend on social class. This single-site preliminary research highlights the need to take the academic context into account when studying the social class graduation gap.

We introduce an agent-based model to investigate the effects of production efficiency (PE) and hot field tracing capability (HFTC) on productivity and impact of scientists embedded in a competitive research environment. Agents compete to publish and become cited by occupying the nodes of a citation network calibrated by real-world citation datasets. Our Monte-Carlo simulations reveal that differences in individual performance are strongly related to PE, whereas HFTC alone cannot provide sustainable academic careers under intensely competitive conditions. Remarkably, the negative effect of high competition levels on productivity can be buffered by elevated research efficiency if simultaneously HFTC is sufficiently low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I start my essay by recalling the resistance at my university towards some groundbreaking results from environmental and global food production research in the early 1960s, when I was a student in agricultural sciences. I describe this resistance as academic inertia originating from group think in the scientific community. I argue that the problems we face today in our search for sustainable development on a global level require a long-term and broad systems approach in research. I conclude that the predominant scientific paradigm, which I define as the control paradigm, is insufficient given its inbuilt reductionist bias. We need the complement of a paradigm entailing a holistic perspective, which I call the co-existence paradigm. I explore how academic inertia and an increasingly competitive culture in the academic world counteract this development. Students at Uppsala University have managed to cross the boundaries of academic inertia in this area by establishing a Center for Environment and Development Studies which pursues a holistic and multidisciplinary perspective. The student-run center, called Cemus, has successfully acted as a force for renewal in academia for two decades. I describe how the center works and suggest that Cemus represents a model for institutionalizing renewal in academia that fills an essential function and is applicable for any university in a democratic society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue d'Economie Politique is the property of Editions Dalloz Sirrey and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ranking systems such as The Times Higher Education's World University Rankings and Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Rankings of World Universities simultaneously mark global status and stimulate global academic competition. As international ranking systems have become more prominent, researchers have begun to examine whether global rankings are creating increased inequality within and between universities. Using a panel Tobit regression analysis, this study assesses the extent to which markers of inter-institutional stratification and organizational segmentation predict global status among US research universities as measured by position in ARWU. Findings indicate some support that both inter-institutional stratification and organizational segmentation predict global status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an overview of spatial abilities in science, technology engineering and mathematics (STEM) in gifted learners. Methods that can increase students' abilities in STEM such as combining arts and science, academic competition, problem solving, computer programming were also discussed. Activities that involve spatial and creative abilities that can incorporate state standards as well as provide the challenge needed to develop them within the learners are also presented.

The purpose of the study was to comparatively investigate student- and school-level factors affecting mathematics achievement of Korean, Japanese and American students. For international comparisons, the PISA 2003 data were analysed by using the Hierarchical Linear Modeling method. The variables of competitive-learning preference, instrumental motivation and mathematics interest were used as student-level predictors on mathematics achievement. The variables of student-teacher relationship and school disciplinary climate were also used as school-level variables. The results of the study showed that different patterns of the relations between student- and school-level predictors and mathematics achievement were present among the three countries. Specifically, the predictor of competitive-learning preference was significant on mathematics achievement in Korea and Japan, but not in the US. For Korean and Japanese students, unexpectedly, mathematics interest was a stronger predictor than was instrumental motivation; in contrast, the pattern was the reverse for American students. For school-level predictors, school disciplinary climate was a significant predictor on the achievement differences in all three countries; however, the variable of student-teacher relationship turned out to be significant only in Japan. Implications of the results are discussed from the comparative perspectives of cultures and educational contexts of the three countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here is a conversation between two former colleagues about action research and academic writing. Richard Winter opens the discussion with a series of reflections on his work as an action researcher. These reflections include the key argument that action research is a noble cause because it is relevant to working life, has a practical impact and enriches what we do in our lives. In response, Graham Badley suggests that, given Richard's argument, academic writing might, for similar reasons, also be considered both as action research and as a noble cause. Richard replies with a concern that academic writing often becomes a commodity to be traded in the academic marketplace. Graham's final contribution to this dialogue is a commentary on academic competition and disagreement in academic writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As compared to continuing-generation students, first-generation students are struggling more at university. In the present article, we question the unconditional nature of such a phenomenon and argue that it depends on structural competition. Indeed, most academic departments use harsh selection procedure all throughout the curriculum, fostering between-student competition. In these departments, first-generation students tend to suffer from a lack of student-institution fit, that is, inconsistencies with the competitive institution's culture, practices, and identity. However, one might contend that in less competitive academic departments continuing-generation students might be the ones experiencing a lack of fit. Using a cross-sectional design, we investigated the consequences of such a context- and category-dependent lack of fit on the endorsement of scholastically adaptive goals. We surveyed N = 378 first- and continuing-generation students from either a more competitive or a less competitive department in their first or final year of bachelor's study. In the more competitive department, first-to-third year decrease of mastery goals (i.e., the desire to learn) was found to be steeper for first- than for continuing-generation students. In the less competitive department, the reversed pattern was found. Moreover, first-to-third year decrease of performance goals (i.e., the desire to outperform others) was found to be steeper within the less competitive department but did not depend on social class. This single-site preliminary research highlights the need to take the academic context into account when studying the social class graduation gap.