Jeroen Maas

Effects of age, size, and mating history on sex role decision of a simultaneous hermaphrodite

Lay summary Quite a few animals are male and female at the same time, so they can choose to mate either as male or female on copulation. The decision to perform either sex role was known to be highly flexible depending on various, but often confounding, factors. For the pond snail, we report that young and small snails tend to mate as males first, though old and large snails do not seem to be better females.

ICT in higher education: increased student engagement.

Purpose – In general, active participation increases learning outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to explore how: information and communication technologies (ICT) can be used to improve the participation of students during lectures and the effect of ICT on the learning outcomes of students. Design/methodology/approach – The authors tested a specific tool, Soapbox, in a compulsory course of a Masters’ program, at VU University, The Netherlands. During half of the lectures the students were invited to participate using their mobile phone or laptop, for the other half of the lectures, taught by the same lecturer, the tool was not used. The authors compared the two groups of lectures. For the evaluation the authors used observations in the classroom, a questionnaire, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions with students and with the lecturer. Findings – The results show that the ICT tool facilitated and increased the level of communication and interaction among the students and between the student...

Trust building and entrepreneurial behaviour in a distrusting environment : A longitudinal study from Bangladesh

It has been widely argued that trust plays a key role in building entrepreneurial networks and entrepreneurial success. Despite this interest, there are still very few longitudinal empirical studies on trust building. This study shows how nascent entrepreneurs develop trust and entrepreneurial networks in poor rural Bangladeshi environments, and how they use both for entrepreneurial transactions. Data were obtained through longitudinal monitoring, questionnaires and interviews over a two year period. Using the framework of Lewicki et al. (1998) that considers trust and distrust to be separate, co-existing dimensions, this study shows how sustainable entrepreneurial relations, requiring interpersonal trust, can evolve in an initially distrusting environment - and explains why this process follows a particular sequence of events. We found that an external trust broker played a crucial role in trust building. Four domains of trust that play a role in entrepreneurial relations were identified, with thresholds in each domain that need to be reached for progress to the next.

Trust building and entrepreneurial opportunities in a distrusting environment: a longitudinal study from Bangladesh.

Many multinational enterprises (MNE) do not achieve desired growth due to their inability to create opportunities for export. An absence of employee innovation exists within MMEs, which suggest an absence of trust and inducement of employee motivation to develop and sustain creative solutions. The purpose of this paper is to integrate trust with intrapreneurship, to promote the emergence of new opportunities within the MNE. The introduction of basic and swift trust disciplines will be integrated with intrapreneurship as catalysts to improve social communication, creativity and enable MNE growth. This research is fundamental to understand how intrapreneurship and trust mediums can intentionally be integrated within an MNE culture to create and sustain a global business. Business scholars discuss these global disciplines as associated business concepts. In particular, business practitioners use trust as a social business tool to encourage employee interaction and intrapreneurship to develop business ventures. This paper endorses a scholar-management practicum to apply trust disciplines with the integration of intrapreneurship to encourage creativity between MNE members.

Inquiry-Based Learning in Action: Reflections on an Interdisciplinary Master’s Program in the Health and Life Sciences

Abstract Society is increasingly confronted with a range of complex social problems that need to be addressed using a research process based on collaboration between stakeholders from both science and society and the integration of knowledge from different disciplines. This type of interdisciplinary research is more complex than mono disciplinary research and requires skills at the cognitive, inter-personal, and intra-personal levels. We present the experiences with an interdisciplinary master’s program. The research question we address is what educational strategy prepares students for interdisciplinary research on complex social problems? Since tasks which are too complex can frustrate students and create resistance, we argue for a gradual approach to inquiry-based learning. We interviewed both students and lecturers, and included curricula evaluations. We found that students can be trained in interdisciplinary research based on a gradual approach to open inquiry and we found a relationship between the complexity of cognitive tasks and the amount of learning in other domains. We argue that when students are challenged at the right level with appropriate guidance, the learning domains will reinforce each other. To keep students optimally challenged, it is crucial that the teachers adjust their role while directing students from structured inquiry towards open inquiry.

From "having the will' to "knowing the way': Incremental transformation for poverty alleviation among rural women in Bangladesh

Short-term, linear, externally funded, project-based approaches to complex problems like womens poverty in rural Bangladesh are often unsuccessful. Taking a different approach, this paper documents a transdisciplinary action-research methodology that led to sustainable poverty alleviation for rural Bangladeshi women, gradual changes in gender relations at the household and community level and strengthened womens capabilities while simultaneously developing an approach to social entrepreneurship. Defining characteristics of this research process were clear articulation of objectives in which poverty alleviation always received priority, learning cycles in which women were the central actors of the research-action process, and fluid and changing leadership among different stakeholders at different stages in the process. The project demonstrates the strength of action-research in addressing complex challenges, such as poverty alleviation and unequal gender relations. Key lessons for development practice include the need for interventions that take place over a longer time-frame and for a vision of development that is not transformational but comprising small incremental, locally embedded changes and which recognises the role of social capital.