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The main aim of this essay is to discuss how international large-scale assessments can be utilized for policy evaluation studies. The authors overview key findings from previous studies and propose the curriculum as an organizing concept in considering firstly, how educational opportunities are provided to students around the world, and secondly, the factors that influence how students use these opportunities. Thereafter, they discuss recent developments in the design of the international studies and methodological advances that allow for robust inferences about the causal mechanisms that cause the observed differences in student outcomes. Finally, the authors identify major challenges for future research including the demand for studies that utilize the trend design of modern studies, more focus on educational equity, and strengthening interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaborations. (DIPF/Orig.).

A path model of organizational creativity was presented; it conceptualized the influences of information sharing, learning culture, motivation, and networking on creative climate. A structural equation model was fitted to data from the pharmaceutical industry to test the proposed model. The model accounted for 86% of the variance in the creative climate-dependent variable. Information sharing had a positive effect on learning culture, which in turn had a positive effect on creative climate, while there were negative direct effects of information sharing on creative climate and on intrinsic motivation. This study suggests that information sharing and intrinsic motivation are important drivers for organizational creativity in a complex R&D environment in the pharmaceutical industry. Implications of the model are discussed.

AbstractSentence repetition tasks are widely used in the diagnosis and assessment of children with language difficulties. This paper seeks to clarify the nature of sentence repetition tasks and their relationship to other language skills. We present the results from a 2‐year longitudinal study of 216 children. Children were assessed on measures of sentence repetition, vocabulary knowledge and grammatical skills three times at approximately yearly intervals starting at age 4. Sentence repetition was not a unique longitudinal predictor of the growth of language skills. A unidimensional language latent factor (defined by sentence repetition, vocabulary knowledge and grammatical skills) provided an excellent fit to the data, and language abilities showed a high degree of longitudinal stability. Sentence repetition is best seen as a reflection of an underlying language ability factor rather than as a measure of a separate construct with a specific role in language processing. Sentence repetition appears to be a valuable tool for language assessment because it draws upon a wide range of language processing skills.