To cheat or not to cheat? A trial of the JISC Plagiarism Detection Service with biological sciences students

In the UK, there is great concern about the perceived increase in plagiarized work being submitted by students in higher educations. Although there is much debate, the reasons for the perceived change are not completely clear. Here we present the results of a 2‐year trial of the JISC Plagiarism Detection Service (PDS) involving hundreds of students. The effectiveness of the service in detecting plagiarized material and in acting as a deterrent are discussed. Although an increased number of cases of plagiarism were detected during the trial, the relative contributions of the electronic detection system and increased staff awareness remain unknown.     

To give or not to give: children's and adolescents' sharing and moral negotiations in economic decision situations

This study interconnects developmental psychology of fair and moral behavior with economic game theory. One hundred eighty-nine 9- to 17-year-old students shared a sum of money as individuals and groups with another anonymous group (dictator game). Individual allocations did not differ by age but did by gender and were predicted by participants' preferences for fair allocations. Group decision making followed a majority process. Level of moral reasoning did not predict individual offers, but group members with a higher moral reasoning ability were more influential during group negotiations and in influencing group outcomes. The youngest participants justified offers more frequently by referring to simple distribution principles. Older participants employed more complex reasons to justify deviations from allocation principles.     

构建和谐高校提高大学生思想道德素养

高校作为我国未来社会建设人才的储备基地,在整个社会体系当中占据着重要的作用地位。要落实党中央所提出的科学发展观,构建和谐社会,就必须要将和谐高校的构建作为一条关键性的途径。构建和谐高校,必须要以大学生的思想道德素养为基础与前提,虽然大学生的思想道德教育一直以来都是教育工作者所研究的重点,也始终受到了来自国家与社会的重视,但是就当前大学生的实际思想道德素养而言,还存在着诸多需要改进之处。为进一步提高我国高校大学生的思想道德素养,本文首先对和谐高校构建与大学生思想道德之间的关系,以及当前大学生的思想道德现状进行了分析,然后就提高大学生思想道德教育工作有效性的措施提出了部分探讨性建议,以期对我国和谐高校的构建起到促进作用,并最终推动我国和谐化社会的建设进程。     

To see or not to see: analyzing difficulties in geometry from the perspective of visual perception

In this paper, we consider theories about processes of visual perception and perception-based knowledge representation (VPR) in order to explain difficulties encountered in figural processing in junior high school geometry tasks. In order to analyze such difficulties, we take advantage of the following perspectives of VPR: (1) Perceptual organization: Gestalt principles, (2) recognition: bottom-up and top-down processing; and (3) representation of perception-based knowledge: verbal vs. pictorial representation, mental images and hierarchical structure of images. Examples given in the paper were mostly taken from Gal's study (2005) which aimed at identifying and analyzing Problematic Learning Situations (after Gal & Linchevski, 2000) in junior high school geometry classes. Gal's study (2005) suggests that while this theoretical perspective became part of teachers' pedagogic content knowledge, the teachers were aware of their students' thinking processes and their ability to analyze and cope with their students’ difficulties in geometry was improved.     

生存还是毁灭

"生存还是毁灭。"除《圣经》以外,这六个字是整个世界文学中最著名的六个字。这六个字是哈姆雷特喃喃自语时所说的,而这六个字也是莎士比亚作品中最有名的几个字,因为哈姆雷特不仅道出了自己的心声,也道出了所有在思考的人的心声。生存还是毁灭——是活     

To lie or not to lie: to whom and under what circumstances

This research examined adolescents' judgments about lying to circumvent directives from parents or friends in the moral, personal, and prudential domains. One hundred and twenty-eight adolescents (12.1-17.3 years) were presented with situations in which an adolescent avoids a directive through deception. The majority of adolescents judged some acts as acceptable, including deception regarding parental directives to engage in moral violations and to restrict personal activities. Other acts of deception were judged as unacceptable, including deception of parents regarding prudential acts, as well as deception of friends in each domain. In addition, lying to conceal a misdeed was negatively evaluated. Most adolescents thought that directives from parents and friends to engage in moral violations or to restrict personal acts were not legitimate, whereas parental directives concerning prudential acts were seen as legitimate. Results indicate that adolescents value honesty, but sometimes subordinate it to moral and personal concerns in relationships of inequality.     

网络舆情视野下的大学生德育创新

伴随着互联网的迅猛发展,网络舆情的影响力日益增强,网络舆情逐渐显现出来多元性、突发性、隐匿性等特点,对高校大学生的思想和行为产生了多方面的影响。因此,正确利用网络舆情开展德育教育,并在此基础实现内容、手段和体制的创新,是高校德育的挑战。     

The effects of students' academic,financial, and demographic variables on time to the doctorate

The time taken to earn doctorates is of major importance to administrators and faculty. By using stepwise multiple regression techniques, this study predicted time to doctorate from the available demographic, academic, and financial variables and determined the significance of each variable on time to the doctorate. The data for this study came from the National Research Council's Doctorate Records File extract prepared for UCLA. This institution is particularly appropriate for a study of this kind, since it annually awards over 400 doctorates in over 75 different majors. Its doctoral recipients represent the range of academic fields of study. The results of this study indicated that source of support was the most important variable in predicting time to doctorate. Following source of support were postdoctoral plans, number of dependents, sex, and field of study. Together these variables explained a significant amount of variation in the criterion variable.     

To refer or not to refer: Evaluation for special education

The authors are with the School of Education, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL.     

The susceptibility of student evaluation of lecturers to situational variables

To investigate the effect of a number of situational factors on student evaluations of lecturers, a teacher rating form (TRF) was administered to 326 first-year students taking an Introduction to Economics course. A comparison was made of the responses of the following subgroups among the students: full-time versus part-time students; students asked to sign their responses versus those whose responses were left anonymous; students told that their responses were just for feedback to the lecturer versus those told that their responses would be used for promotion, tenure, and salary decisions about the lecturer; students told that the TRFs were sponsored by the student association versus those told that the TRFs were sponsored by the staff association. The factors of sponsor identity (staff or student association) and use of ratings (feedback or decisional) had significant effects on TRF scores; but the effects of the factors of anonymity and full- versus part-time were insignificant. These results are taken as suggestive evidence that conditions of administration can modify student responses to TRFs and that they should be as uniform as possible if TRFs are to be used to compare lecturers.     

Integrating a moral reasoning game in a blended learning setting: effects on students' interest and performance

A new approach to moral education using blended learning has been developed. This approach involves 10 scenarios that are designed as a web-based game and serves as a basis for group moral-consequence-based reasoning, which is developed based on a hypothetical-deductive model. The aim of the study was to examine the changes in students' blended learning interest and reasoning ability in a time series experimental design. After playing the game with the 10 initial scenarios during the first week of the study, participants were subjected to five blended learning sessions that required them to discuss the consequences of one of the 10 scenarios using hypothetical-deductive reasoning. After six weeks, the data from the 110 participants were analyzed using time series statistics. The results indicated that players were highly interested in the game, although their interest had a tendency to decrease slightly over time. Repetitive game play (i.e. practice) was positively associated with the players' moral reasoning performance. The study results may lend support to the design of a game with additional or more highly complex content for players to further develop students' consequential reasoning ability.     

Development of moral reasoning in situational and cultural contexts

ABSTRACT

This article examines relationships between children and youths’ judgments and their justifications of truth telling and verbal deception, in situational and cultural contexts. Han Chinese, Euro-Canadians and Chinese-Canadians, seven- to 17-years of age were presented competitive scenarios in which protagonists told either lies to protect, or truths to harm, various levels of collectivity. Participants evaluated protagonists’ statements, using a 7-point scale, and justified their judgments. Cultural variations in moral evaluations emerged among the three groups of participants. Older Chinese participants reflected significant collective cultural values in their judgements; by contrast, Euro-Canadians identified more individualistically; and Chinese-Canadians demonstrated notable variability between these perspectives in their judgments. The article enhances understanding of situational and cultural sources in the development of moral reasoning within a sociocultural framework.     

Instructional objectives: What effects do they have on students' attitudes towards integrated science?

The effect of instructional objectives on students' attitudes towards integrated science was investigated in this study. The sample consisted of 291 class one (seventh grade) students who were pretested before being exposed to the experimental situations. There were two experimental groups (objective and no objective) and a control group. A posttest was administered after the completion of the treatment. Results showed that the experimental groups had more favorable attitudes towards integrated science than the control group; the no objective group had better attitudes than the objective group. There was no significant effect due to the type of school or sex of the students. Implications for science teaching are considered.