To Boxplot or Not to Boxplot?

The lower quartile is the median of all of the values to the left of the median of the whole set of data; the upper quartile is the median of all of the values to the right of the median of the whole set of data.     

To Feedback or Not to Feedback in Student Self-assessment

Extensive research (Black & Wiliam, 1998) notes the importance of feedback for learning. It is posited that even final-year undergraduate students will benefit from feedback and would thus value tutor feedback as an integral part of the student self-assessment process. At a British university, students were trained to carry out self-assessment of two types: firstly, self-assessment prior to peer and tutor feedback and secondly, self-assessment which integrated feedback as part of the process. Students overwhelmingly favoured the latter. In addition, analysis of student errors showed that, contrary to expectations, the majority of students' errors in translation were principally caused by their native language. Furthermore, discussion and questions on criteria revealed that students' expectations of their grades were closely related to the amount of time and effort which they had invested in their work. This was external to the actual standard of their work and their awareness of this.     

To Apply or Not to Apply: FAFSA Completion and Financial Aid Gaps

In the United States, college students must complete the Free Application for Student Federal Aid (FAFSA) to access federal aid. However, many eligible students do not apply and consequently forgo significant amounts of financial aid. If students have perfect information about aid eligibility, we would expect that all eligible students complete FAFSA and no aid would go unclaimed. Using data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey, I estimate a multinomial logit model which controls for all variables that contribute to aid eligibility and other student characteristics that may deter FAFSA completion. I find that students who are lower middle income, white, male and independent from parents are less likely to complete FAFSA even when they are eligible for aid. Using propensity score matching, I find that each year applicants forgo $9,741.05 in total aid (including grant and loan aid) which includes $1,281.00 of Pell Grants, $2,439.50 of the balance subsidized student loans, $1,986.65 of the balance of unsubsidized student loans, and $1,016.04 of institutional grants. These aid totals aggregate to $24 billion annually.     

Subscores Based on Classical Test Theory: To Report or Not to Report

There is an increasing interest in reporting subscores, both at examinee level and at aggregate levels. However, it is important to ensure reasonable subscore performance in terms of high reliability and validity to minimize incorrect instructional and remediation decisions. This article employs a statistical measure based on classical test theory that is conceptually similar to the test reliability measure and can be used to determine when subscores have any added value over total scores. The usefulness of subscores is examined both at the level of the examinees and at the level of the institutions that the examinees belong to. The suggested approach is applied to two data sets from a basic skills test. The results provide little support in favor of reporting subscores for either examinees or institutions for the tests studied here.     

捐,还是不捐,这是一个问题

2004年岁末,突如其来的海啸震惊了全世界, 也包括我所在的学校。灾难发生后几天,高二有个班 发起了募捐活动,很快,学校德育处接手了此事,一 场为灾民献爱心的活动轰轰烈烈地开展起来了。学 校规定,学生捐款以班为单位,班主任随本班捐款, 并准备在周一的升旗仪式上举行一个捐赠仪式。     

入世与出世:吴敬梓的两难抉择 --论《儒林外史》中仕与隐的矛盾

古代知识分子常常会遇到仕和隐的矛盾,吴敬梓也不例外。从个人性情来说,他是比较倾向于隐逸;但由于深受儒家思想影响,他又无法放弃自己的社会责任。以个人行为影响周围的人,从而间接地实现自己的社会理想的“教化”,是他在这一矛盾面前找到的平衡点。     

加强对学生学会上大学的教育

大学生入校后将面临一系列问题,如为什么学,学什么,怎么学,学了以后干什么.同样是上大学,会上与不会上大不一样.教师教书育人的重要职责就是指导和帮助学生学会学习,学会在大学中如何生活,也就是学会怎样上大学.     

浅析孔子的因材施教法

孔子通过长期私人讲学的实践创造出了因材施教的教学方法,他把因材施教与启发诱导结合起来,从学生个体的实际情况出发,运用启发诱导的方法,发挥学生学习的主动性和积极性.对学生提出的同一问题,如仁、孝、政,孔子能针对提问人的不同情况,做出含义完全相反的回答.因为他经常分析每个学生的不同特点,对每一位学生的才能特点、性格特征心里都有数.这是新时期教育体制改革必须加以借鉴的宝贵经验.     

选择的悖论：互文视域下张翎小说研究

海外华文女作家张翎如今声名日盛,身处两种文化之中,张的创作凸显了其跨文化体验和全球视野。运用互文性手法对其创作进行整体关照,从人物、情节、主题方面入手探讨其作品内部及与中西女作家如张爱玲、莱辛等人到作品形成的互文,试图发现其对女性境遇、女性命运做出的独特思考。     

The Principle of Mutual Exclusivity in Word Learning: To Honor or Not to Honor?

According to Markman and Wachtel, children assume that nouns pick out mutually exclusive object categories, and so each object should have only one category label. While this assumption can be useful in word learning, it is not entirely reliable. Therefore, children need to learn when to and when not to make this assumption. 6 studies examined whether knowledge about hierarchical organization of categories and about cross-language equivalents for object labels can help children limit their use of this assumption appropriately. These studies revealed that adults as well as children resisted assigning 2 novel names to the same object in some situations. By age 4, children also seemed to know enough about categorization to accept 2 names for an object if the names picked out categories from different levels of a hierarchy (e.g., animal and lemur) but not if they picked out categories from the same level (e.g., lemur and seal). Moreover, monolingual as well as bilingual children seemed to know enough about languages to accept 2 names for the same object if the names clearly came from different languages. Together, these findings suggest that even preschool children can make use of knowledge about language and categorization to fine tune the mutual exclusivity assumption in order to use it effectively in word learning.     

生存还是死亡——《防守》之纳博科夫的“时间”哲学

《防守》是纳博科夫以时间为线索,谱写了痴迷象棋的卢仁的一生。它涵盖着作者所贯彻的两重对立性观点:在现实与彼岸世界中塑造自我概念;讲究主体意识在时间上的作用,从而衍生出生存还是死亡的哲学性思考。很明显,针对人类生存质量的好坏,作者并未给出标准性的答案。然而,他却在小说中留下这样一个伏笔:在变化的时间内,一切皆有可能。     

顺着情境讲下去

作者建议教师们在课堂教学的进程中应该因势利导,顺着情境讲课,并例举了一些生动范例。     

To Nibble or to Byte:

No abstract available for this article.     

德育的明智策略:教人学会做人

长期存在于德育中的主要问题是:抽象、空洞、形式、无效。具体表现为:第一,德育目标抽象,过于口号化和理想化。第二,德育内容单一、枯燥,政治性过强。第三,德育方法重强制与灌输,忽略引导、体验与身体力行;重形式和运动,轻平时、持久与小事。第四,德育评价空洞、千篇一律。其结