Ljiljana B. Lazarević

Badges to Acknowledge Open Practices: A Simple, Low-Cost, Effective Method for Increasing Transparency

Beginning January 2014, Psychological Science gave authors the opportunity to signal open data and materials if they qualified for badges that accompanied published articles. Before badges, less than 3% of Psychological Science articles reported open data. After badges, 23% reported open data, with an accelerating trend; 39% reported open data in the first half of 2015, an increase of more than an order of magnitude from baseline. There was no change over time in the low rates of data sharing among comparison journals. Moreover, reporting openness does not guarantee openness. When badges were earned, reportedly available data were more likely to be actually available, correct, usable, and complete than when badges were not earned. Open materials also increased to a weaker degree, and there was more variability among comparison journals. Badges are simple, effective signals to promote open practices and improve preservation of data and materials by using independent repositories.

Cross-cultural consistency and relativity in the enjoyment of thinking versus doing.

Which is more enjoyable: trying to think enjoyable thoughts or doing everyday solitary activities? Wilson et al. (2014) found that American participants much preferred solitary everyday activities, such as reading or watching TV, to thinking for pleasure. To see whether this preference generalized outside of the United States, we replicated the study with 2,557 participants from 12 sites in 11 countries. The results were consistent in every country: Participants randomly assigned to do something reported significantly greater enjoyment than did participants randomly assigned to think for pleasure. Although we found systematic differences by country in how much participants enjoyed thinking for pleasure, we used a series of nested structural equation models to show that these differences were fully accounted for by country-level variation in 5 individual differences, 4 of which were positively correlated with thinking for pleasure (need for cognition, openness to experience, meditation experience, and initial positive affect) and 1 of which was negatively correlated (reported phone usage). (PsycINFO Database Record

Familial and individual reasons for student dropout: Schools’ perception

The main objective of the research was to identify individual and familial factors students cite as the reasons for dropping out of school or being at the risk of doing so. We interviewed a total of twelve students who dropped out of school or are at the risk of dropping out of primary (six students) or secondary school (six students) and four parents. A semi-structured interview was used. We singled out four categories of students, determined by their perception of the reasons for dropping out of school. Those categories included: underage pregnancy, assuming a parental role, problematic behaviour (thefts, fights) and weak motivation for school and learning. It seems justified to look for a typology of dropout cases since each of the selected groups of students requires specific preventive measures in order to secure continuation of their education. Furthermore, research has shown that, when it comes to their children dropping out of school, parents tend to blame the child’s character traits they deem unchangeable. The failure of school staff to help the child further encourages this belief in parents.

Dropout as A Result of Education With No Space for Diversity

Traditionally, educational system in Serbia, with prevalence of ex-cathedra teaching methods, focuses on the reproductive level of knowledge, as the results of international assessment studies (TIMSS, PISA) shown (OECD, 2013; Pavlovic, Babic, & Baucal, 2013; Martin et al., 2012).