Classroom computer experiences that stick: Two lenses on reflective timed essays

Testing the hypotheses that reflective timed-essay prompts should elicit memories of meaningful experiences in students’ undergraduate education, and that computer-mediated classroom experiences should be salient among those memories, a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods paints a richer, more complex picture than either method would independently. A quantitative approach appears to provide support for the hypotheses, revealing that students mention media-related experiences three times as often as they mention specific professors. A qualitative, close-reading approach both challenges and supports the hypotheses. The construct of media-related experiences includes mundane, instrumental encounters with computers as well as transformative experiences with them. This hybrid research methodology supports the identification of those transformative experiences and thus provides validity evidence for the use of reflective timed-essay responses in guiding endorsements of specific classroom practices.     

Teachers as ‘reform-doers’: developing a participatory curriculum to teach English as a foreign language

Action research concerns action, and transforming people’s practices (as well as their understandings of their practices and the conditions under which they practise). Sometimes we may feel that action research works best when it contributes to our understandings. In this paper, by contrast, I want to explore the ‘happening‐ness’ of action and practice, as they are lived and changed by action research. I want to explore the place of action research in shaping and making history by changing what is done. The central argument of this paper is that, while action research certainly does contribute to theory, it also, and perhaps more importantly, contributes to history.     

Effects of violent and non-violent computer game content on memory performance in adolescents

The present study focuses on the short-term effects of electronic entertainment media on memory and learning processes. It compares the effects of violent versus non-violent computer game content in a condition of playing and in another condition of watching the same game. The participants consisted of 83 female and 94 male adolescents with a mean age of 17.6 years. The dependent variables are memory for previously learnt verbal and visual material, memory for media-related content and physiological measures of stress (heart rate, cortisol, salivary alpha-amylase). Besides the group comparisons, potential mediation effects and gender differences were examined. The results show that violent content leads to a poorer memory performance for verbal material and to an increased heart rate. The heart rate, however, does not mediate the effect on memory performance. Genders differ regarding their abilities to memorise verbal and visual material, with females showing a better performance (independent of the experimental condition), and for memorising media-contents, where the males outperform females (also independent of experimental condition). The study supports the assumption that violent and arousing media content has a negative short-term effect on simultaneous information processing and learning and that there are gender-specific media effects.     

教师心理健康状况研究述评

就这一问题的国内外研究现状进行全面归纳总结，重点对国内的研究现状进行述评，指出其存在的问题，以此作为本课题研究的现实切入点，并提出初步研究设想，有关调查数据正在处理之中。     

Respecting and fulfilling the right of post-primary pupils to consent to participate in trials and evaluative research: a discussion paper

This paper provides an introduction to issues surrounding the participation rights of young people in research and the implications of their growing involvement in research as well as providing a discourse on the ethical implications related to consent. The unique contribution of this paper is that it considers children’s rights in respect to the increasing opportunities for young people to take part in evaluation research. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to acknowledge the growing involvement for young people in research and the implications of ensuring that their rights of participation are respected. Secondly, we will consider the children’s rights legislation and our obligations as researchers to implement this. Finally, we will explore consent as an issue in its own right as well as the practicalities of accessing participants. This paper will postulate that any research about young people should involve and prioritize at all stages of the research process; including participation in decision-making. We conclude by identifying five key principles, which we believe can help to facilitate the fulfilment of post-primary pupils’ ability to consent to participate in trials and evaluative research.     

Möglichkeiten außerschulischer Hilfen in der Bearbeitung von Bildungsbenachteiligung: Potenziale und Grenzen ausgewählter Handlungsfelder der Jugendsozialarbeit

Even though social inequalities in education are often dealt with in out-of-school social work programs, this has been largely neglected by educational research in recent years. The present paper therefore presents the different fields of action in youth social work as means of compensatory education and discusses research findings regarding its use and effectiveness. The difficulty of measuring their effectiveness is not only due to a fragmented research field, but also reflects the fundamental contradiction between structural problems and their pedagogical treatment. The paper ends with a reflection on the importance of out-of-school programs to help adolescents with difficult course of lives.     

Why Generalisability is not Generalisable

In the United States there is an increasing tendency to view the only educational research worthy of federal funding as that which is designed as an experiment using randomised controls. One of the foundational assumptions underlying this research design is that the results of such research are meant to be generalisable beyond any particular research study. The purpose of this paper is to historicise the assumption of generalisability by explaining the ways in which it is a particularly modern research project. By historicising generalisability, I show the ways in which the current research standards are products of culturally specific historical circumstances. In other words, generalisability is a local phenomenon and not generalisable to other times and places.     

Participatory principles in human inquiry: ethics and methods in a study of the paradigm shift experience

In this paper, underlying principles for guiding participation in human science research are outlined. These research principles were originally utilized as a guiding framework for the author's phenomenological study of the change to a new world‐view identified as the paradigm shift (Dudley, 1987). Using this study as an example, the paper focuses on the integration of participatory concepts in research. The concept of participation as ethics discussed in this paper includes the following dimensions: integrity congruence among problem, paradigm, and method; process‐orientation a commitment to research as a shared journey of discovery; empathetic relationships an ethic of mutuality; and empowerment in community a view of knowledge as communal achievement. Finally, a participatory ethic is discussed in terms of its congruence with values that are at the heart of the new social science paradigm.     

模糊逼近神经网络摄动系统的若干进展

本文对本世纪80年代中期兴起并紧密结合现代科学技术进步的一门新兴学科--模糊神经网络进行了综述,分析了所取得的主要成果及其特点,并指出了今后模糊神经网络研究中有待解决的许多问题.针对这些问题,介绍了笔者的工作--模糊逼近神经网络摄动系统,对开展模糊神经网络的研究将具有启迪作用和现实意义.     

Racial Difference and Social Meanings: Research on “Black” and “White” Infants' Motor Development,c. 1931-1992

The notion that science objectively discovers natural “truths” is problematic, as social influence is always present in research. This is especially apparent when science investigates such concepts as race, class. and gender where differential social power relations are evident. To demonstrate this assertion, we review twentieth-century research comparing “black” and “white” infant motor development. We have approached this paper from the stance that science is a social activity, with all observations influenced by, as well as reflective of, the values of scientists and the political leanings of the sociocultural context within which research is conducted. We suggest that when questions of group difference are pursued in science, awareness of how the categories themselves have been shaped by social and historical forces, as well as of the potential effects on society, is important.     

Simulation research of energy management strategy for dual mode plug-in hybrid electrical vehicles

In this paper, a plug-in hybrid electrical vehicle (PHEV) is taken as the research object, and its dynamic performance and economic performance are taken as the research goals. Battery charge-sustaining (CS) period is divided into power mode and economy mode. Energy management strategy designing methods of power mode and economy mode are proposed. Maximum velocity, acceleration performance and fuel consumption are simulated during the CS period in the AVL CRUISE simulation environment. The simulation results indicate that the maximum velocity and acceleration time of the power mode are better than those in the economy mode. Fuel consumption of the economy mode is better than that in the power mode. Fuel consumption of PHEV during the CS period is further improved by using the methods proposed in this paper, and this is meaningful for research and development of PHEV.     

A tenuous relationship: The African university and development policymaking in the 1980s

This paper examines some reasons why research findings generated by African university-based researchers seldom are taken into serious consideration by development policymakers in anglophone Africa. It begins with a brief review of the introduction of British models of higher education and scientific research into Africa, using Nigeria as an illustrative case. It then considers the current research environment of the African university and the changing role of the university in the late 1980s. The paper posits a number of reasons why research carried out at African universities rarely is used as input by policymakers in their development planning processes: (1) there is a clear dichotomy between the university and government, with relations that can best be described as mutually suspicious; (2) there is a dichotomy between university-based researchers working on national development problems and the rural populations who usually are intended as the recipients or beneficiaries of the research findings; and (3) research is seriously underfunded in virtually all African universities, with the result that researchers seldom have sufficient means to carry out effective dissemination of their research findings. The paper ends with some suggestions as to how the impact of these problems might be minimized.The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the International Development Research Centre.     

Rhizovocality

In this conceptual paper, the author offers a rethinking of the concept of voice in qualitative research informed by feminist, postcolonial, and poststructural theories. Using Deleuze & Guattari's (1987) figuration of the rhizome, the irruptions of voice in feminist and postfoundational qualitative research are mapped to invent a concept of voice, rhizovocality, that signifies voice as excessive and transgressive yet interconnected. This mapping begins with early feminist emancipatory research that assumed an authentic, silent woman's voice in need of liberation. Then, the author moves into dilemmas of power that emerged from critiques of problematic representations of voice within feminist research. The third section of the paper is a postcolonial feminist response to imperial uses of voice in feminist research, and the final part is a feminist deconstructive critique of voice in qualitative research. The article concludes with an argument for rhizovocality as a conceptual, deconstructive tool for working the limits of voice in qualitative research.     

Conceptualising food research in higher education as a matter of social justice: philosophical,methodological and ethical considerations

Globally, food concerns in higher education have emerged as an issue of critical importance. Food acquisition struggles and high rates of food insecurity among students have been documented, yet food within higher education continues to be an under-researched area of study. This paper calls for advancing research that critically engages with food concerns in higher education. The argument is made that food concerns should be viewed as a social justice matter, and a case is made for conducting research on food concerns by adopting an alternative approach to research in this area – a transformative paradigm. The paper advances new insights for the philosophical, methodological and ethical dimensions to researching food in higher education as a matter of social justice. The argument is made that a transformative approach to research is conducive for examining the experiences of those who are marginalised within the context of higher education and confront food challenges.     

Beyond you and me: stories for collective action and learning? Perspectives from an action research project

This paper explores the combination of storytelling and reflective action research as a means to effect change and learning within and across communities and organizations. Taking the complex challenge of ‘pro-environmental behaviour change’ as an example, the paper reflects on the experiences of a pilot project run for the UK government that took place over two years with five community groups in rural England. The research question centred on how the stories of ‘older’ (aged 50+) community advocates might be amplified and inspire wider change via a systemic action research approach. This paper describes the project and shares insights into how behaviour change might occur in this action-based learning context challenging more Newtonian conceptualizations of change. Some of the methodological and practice challenges and conundrums that arose are discussed including authenticity, ownership and ethical issues of voice and ownership. Parallels and distinctions between story-based action research and action learning are identified and the role of narrative in inducing action is considered. The paper concludes by reflecting on future directions and the overall potential there is for ‘narrative action learning’ to address those wicked systemic problems that transcend organizational boundaries and that are faced by real people in our communities and society as a whole.     

基于TF-IDF算法和DTM模型的网络学习社区主题分析

随着信息技术的快速发展,网络学习社区已成为重要的学习平台之一。在此背景下,文章采用词频—逆文本频率(Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency,TF-IDF)算法和动态主题模型(Dynamic Topic Models,DTM),以951条相关文献作为数据来源,首先对网络学习社区的研究热点和研究主题进行了分析,发现网络学习社区具有明确的教育属性,并将网络学习社区领域的相关研究划分为九类主题。随后,文章基于时序绘制了热度高低均值图和热度曲线图,对网络学习社区主题热度与演化情况进行了分析,发现混合教学和学习服务等主题具有核心热点特征,平台建设、学习者交互、社区生态等主题发展较为稳定,学习环境主题有一定的发展潜力,而学习模式、知识共享、学习动机等主题热度逐渐弱化。最后,文章梳理了研究结论,并针对网络学习社区的发展提出了建议。文章的研究为网络学习社区领域中理论和实践研究提供了一定的数据和理论支持,明确了该领域的研究主题和结构,为探讨该领域的未来研究方向提供了新的思路。     

Access to higher education in South Africa: expanding capabilities in and through an undergraduate photovoice project

ABSTRACT

There is a gap in research on access to universities in South Africa. The research that exists focuses on quantitative methodologies, although some qualitative studies are now emerging. These research methodologies, although necessary and substantial for the development of equity measures and policies, might be less successful in their impact on the local context, on research participants and in expanding what counts as knowledge in the university. In this paper, participatory research, which has not been used to research access, is explored. The paper seeks to go beyond the instrumentalization of research participants – especially those from low-income households – highlighting the potential of using multi-strategy research, in which participatory elements are included as a way to foster both participants’ human development and local impact. Drawing on a research project on access to higher education in South Africa, the paper demonstrates that by including participatory elements (in this case photovoice) has the potential to operationalize Appadurai’s notion of the ‘right to research’ among undergraduates. Using data, including processes, observations, workshops, interviews, and visual narratives from a participatory photovoice project, the findings highlight how methodological plurality creates space for locally and relevant knowledge production, challenging epistemic barriers and fostering human development among the research participants.     

Preschool child development: implications for investigation of child abuse allegations

Allegations of mistreatment by adults made by children of preschool age are often dismissed as fictitious with the suggestion that children of this age are prone to fantasy and unable to discriminate fact from fiction. This paper is intended to familiarize those with a general concern about child abuse with the research and theories in child development. Specifically, it reviews those aspects of normal child development which have direct relevance to the question of the veracity of reports made by children ages 2 to 5 years. Examination of the research on children's thought and language, memory and learning, fears, fantasy, and play, as well as the research on the influence of television on children of this age, led to the conclusion that preschoolers base their play on the reality of their experience.     

Action learning: the possibility of differing hierarchies in learning sets

This paper presents the proposition that a variety of differing hierarchies exist in an action learning set at any one time, and each hierarchy has the potential to affect an individual's behaviour within the set. An interpretivist philosophy underpins the research framework adopted in this paper. Data were captured by means of 11 in-depth interviews that formed part of wider research into set members' perceptions of what makes an effective action learning set. The interviewees were all former students of the researcher and her colleagues. The research draws upon grounded theory as a dominant research paradigm and uses thematic analysis to interpret the research findings. The findings of the research serve to simply illustrate that there is the potential for a variety of differing hierarchies to exist in an action learning set at any one time. Some of the hierarchies may exist for the full duration of the set; others are somewhat ephemeral. The findings from this research also present themselves as points of consideration for academics and practioners who have used or are about to use action learning as a learning vehicle.