对数线性模型的统计信息功能

通过一个四维列联表算例研究了对数线性模型在统计分析中的信息功能．结果表明：对数线性模型可通过拟合优度统计检验发现多维分类变量中存在的统计独立关系;可通过参数估计分别针对列联表的每一个组格回答各个单个变量以及2个、3个、4个变量的各种交互对形成该组格概率的贡献;无法提供变量间统计相依程度强弱的信息．     

A Cross‐Cultural Comparison of East Asian and American Higher Education Criminal Justice Student Learning Preferences Using the VARK Questionnaire

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between learning preferences of East Asian and American higher education students. A review of the literature revealed a body of qualitative studies suggesting a stereotypical perception of an Asian learning preference influenced by cultural variables and the historical roots of Confucianism. The pedagogical implications of this stereotypical perception are obvious to faculty engaged in teaching and learning with Asian international students in America or abroad. The authors surveyed 233 higher education students from Hong Kong and America using the VARK Questionnaire. The authors used a two‐way contingency table analysis and chi‐square statistical tests to conduct their cross‐cultural comparison on their variables of interest including age, gender, and country.     

海南高职院校数学教师专业发展现状——以公办和民办高职院教师为例

以问卷方式了解海南高职院校数学教师专业发展状况,利用SPSS统计分析软件对问卷中公、民办数学教师基本情况做列联表分析,发现公、民办数学教师在年龄、学历、职称、周工作量、教学条件、受训机会等方面差异较显著。此研究旨在为高职院校数学教师提供良好教学平台提供实证依据。     

Life-science concept development among beginning kindergarten children from three different community settings

Two basic questions were investigated. (1) Do beginning kindergarten children from three different community settings (inner-urban, outer-urban, and rural-farm) vary significantly in performance on a Life-Science Concept Acquisition Test (L-SCAT)? (2) What independent variables are the most useful predictors of performance on the L-SCAT? The L-SCAT was developed by the investigator. It was administered to seventeen subjects from each of the three community settings (N = 51). Among the results were the following: (1) there were significant differences (p < .05) among the scores made by the subjects; (2) a major source of significance was between outer-urban and inner-urban subjects' mean scores; (3) when all physical, mental, and sociocultural variables were used as predictors, a subject's I.Q. and his chronological age were the most useful predictors of L-SCAT performance; and (4) when sociocultural variables alone were used as predictors, the number of years education of a subject's mother was the most useful predictor of L-SCAT performance.     

Students' approaches to exploring relationships between categorical variables

In the context of an afterschool program in which students explore relatively large authentic datasets, we investigated how 11- to 14-year old students worked with categorical variables. During the program, students learned to use the Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP), a statistical analysis platform specifically designed for middle and high school students, to create and interpret graphs. Following the program, we conducted individual clinical interviews, during which students used CODAP to answer questions about relationships between variables. Here, we describe how students engaged in exploratory data analysis that involved looking at relationships between two categorical variables. Students worked from data in table form and created “contingency graphs,” a variant of contingency tables, which they used to analyze and draw insights from the data. Our research identified four strategies that students used to examine the data in order to explore patterns, make comparisons, and answer questions with the data.     

权变意识与“仁、智、勇”三达德关系探析

孔子思想的内容十分丰富,其中＂仁、智、勇＂三达德是其思想的重要方面,而这三达德中又蕴涵着权变意识。孔子一向主张具体问题具体分析,具体情况具体对待,办事灵活不教条,不死板,不究死理,不固执,不拘泥,随机应变;他的这种权变意识处处渗透在＂仁、智、勇＂三达德重要思想当中。孔子权变意识与三达德之间的关系,如能得到深入研究,孔子的基本思想便可以得到更深入的研究。本文仅就权变意识与＂仁、智、勇＂之间的关系,作一个浅显的探析。     

我国公民意识教育研究的轨迹、特性与趋势——基于1999～2011年优秀硕士学位论文全文数据库的计量分析

公民意识教育研究是近年来我国学术界研究的热点之一。对1999～2011年优秀硕士学位论文全文数据库中关于公民意识教育研究的论文,分别从数量与时间分布、研究视角与方法、研究课题层次分布和授予单位分布等维度,利用词频分析、数据可视化等先进文献计量技术进行分析,结果显示:我国公民意识教育研究呈阶段性上升趋势,具有较强的时代特性,研究视角与方法多元化,学位授予单位分布广;但研究的随意性和偶然性大,研究课题层次呈偏态分布。因此,注重研究的实质性探析,提升研究的可持续发展,增强问题意识,运用综合思维,加强微观透视和实证研究才是未来研究的基本走向。     

Relationships between perceived parental acceptance-rejection, psychological adjustment, and substance abuse among young adults.

This study examined the relationship between perceived parental acceptance-rejection, psychological adjustment, and substance abuse. A volunteer sample of 40 young adult substance abusers was compared to a comparable volunteer sample of 40 nonabusers with respect to individuals' perceptions of paternal and maternal acceptance-rejection and psychological adjustment. Discriminant function analysis using the jackknife procedure was utilized to examine the predictive power and the classification accuracy of perceived parental acceptance-rejection and psychological adjustment. Results of the research show that: (a) Both perceived paternal and maternal rejection in childhood tend to be significantly higher among substance abusers than among nonabusers, and; (b) substance abusers are more impaired in their current psychological adjustment than are nonabusers. These two classes of predictor variables yield a correlation of .77 with group membership (i.e., abusers vs. nonabusers), and the three predictor variables successfully discriminate substance abusers from nonabusers with jackknifed classification accuracy of 87.5%. Adding the demographic variable "education level" to the model raises the jackknifed classification accuracy to 91.2%, yielding only seven misclassifications in the total sample of 80 volunteers.     

Class placement and competence attainment among students with special educational needs

John Olav Myklebust is Professor of Sociology at Volda University College in Norway. In this article, he discusses his analysis of data emerging from a longitudinal study of 494 young people with special educational needs who have been followed over a period of six years. This analysis focuses on the attainments of these students during their time in upper secondary education and asks whether placement in special or ordinary mainstream class groupings is more beneficial. The results indicate that students receiving special support in ordinary classes obtain vocational or academic qualifications more often than students in special classes. Professor Myklebust pursues his analysis by looking at the influence of a number of other variables, including assessments of functional level, family stability and gender. He concludes that the relationship between attainment and placement in an ordinary classroom does not change, even when these variables are taken into account, and argues that his findings provide further support for the inclusion of learners with special educational needs in ordinary mainstream classes.     

Measuring growth in education

The authors argue that the usefulness and legitimacy of measuring student growth depend upon the purpose for which the scores will be used. The investigator or instructor should not attempt to discriminate among individual students on the basis of gain scores because of the unreliability of such scores. The ranking of students in terms of gains is almost always too unreliable to be useful or defensible. On the other hand, the problem of unreliability creates much less difficulty when one is interested in measuring overall treatment effectiveness or in discriminating among situations rather than individuals. The authors conclude that there are many situations in education in which the measurement of student growth is possible, justifiable, and informative.     

Higher Education Reform in the Czech Republic: A Personal Testimony Regarding the Impact of Foreign Advisers

The author, a Czech émigré scholar, reflects both on his return to his homeland, after the 1989 Velvet Revolution, as an advisor to the Czechoslovak Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports, and in general, on the question of the influence of foreign (Western) advisors in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe undergoing transition. His initial experience was that of a foreign advisor, given his background and the number of years of absence from his homeland. In addition to delivering lectures on the reform of education, he took part in the setting up of TEMPUS programmes and in preparing the 1992 OECD review of Czech and Slovak higher education. Then later, as a returned Czech academic more than as a foreign advisor, he contributed to the elaboration of the 1995-1996 review of the whole educational system of the Czech Republic. His general conclusion is that the work of foreign advisors can be valuable if the given advisors really understand the local environment and the language; however, there may be some time lag as to the adoption of their recommendations.     

HIGHER EDUCATION: CHANGING TASKS AND DEFINITIONS

Given the unprecedented expansion of European higher education systems over the last twenty‐five years, it has become increasingly difficult to analyse and to classify the different types of systems and institutions. At the same time, however, it has become all the more important to be able to do so in ways which give accurate and usable results. While commenting on the ambiguities and inaccuracies of the various approaches to classification which certain specialists have proposed, the author argues in favour of his own functional approach to the classification of universities by ideal type as based on extrapolations from heuristic definitions which he formulates of four national models of higher education institution: the research model of Germany, the personality development model of England, the training model of France, and the diversified model of the United States, the lattter combining elements of the first three. Individual institutions and systems in Europe and in North America reflect the typologies of these models in infinitely varying proportions. Armed with the ability and the willingness to analyse according to these models, future students of higher education should place less emphasis on analysing the formal aspects of structural differentiation and more on the functional features of tertiary education and research institutions so as to produce more accurate and usable analyses, definitions, and classifications.

     

江西省高等教育发展规模的分析与预测——基于人工神经BP网络的视角

通过计量经济分析发现江西省高等教育发展规模不仅与其经济发展水平密切相关,还与城市化进程密不可分。因此,以经济发展水平与城市化作为两个控制变量,利用人工神经BP网络对其未来高等教育规模发展进行了预测。     

Intuition in Using Nominal Variables for Prediction

The notion of independence between two nominal variables is typically introduced through the use of chi‐square analysis of contingency tables, while the topic of prediction of one nominal variable from a second nominal variable using optimal prediction to the mode is often omitted. Through the use of a questionnaire, this article indicates that there is considerable confusion among students on the difference between the concepts of independence and prediction, and remedies are suggested.     

The interventionary state in China and programs and curricula at a Chinese vocational university

Through case study methods, we examine a vocational university in China to ascertain if and the extent to which industrial modernization, the global economy and economic market forces, and state planning have altered this institution. We focus specifically upon a vocational university in China, as these institutions comprise the newest higher education sector in that nation and those most logically connected to work in the new global economy. Anning Ding, the first author and principal investigator, is a native of China, and English is his second language. The first author used interview data in a larger study and we plan to use these data again for another publication.     

A Conceptual Examination of Setting Events

Setting events are typically seen as antecedent contextual variables that influence behaviour. They are thought to act independently of Skinner's three‐term contingency, which consists of a discriminative stimulus, response, and reinforcing consequence. There has been increasing interest in setting events in education from both a theoretical and applied perspective. This paper examines a range of conceptualisations of setting events and appraises the extent to which they can be viewed as a discrete class of phenomena. Variation in the terminology used to describe setting events and lack of clarity in consideration of explanatory mechanisms tends to hinder analysis. Nevertheless, a number of plausible explanations exist to account for setting events associated with both conditioned and unconditioned reinforcers. While the conceptual underpinnings of setting events remain unclear in part, they do serve the function of drawing our attention to a wide range of antecedent variables that may influence behaviour. Resolution of issues related to consistency of terminology and clarification of our conceptual understanding of setting events may provide further guidance in their practical application to behaviour.     

理智训练:现代大学的本然使命——读纽曼《大学的理想》一书断想

纽曼是英国著名的高等教育思想家.他在<大学的理想>一书中阐述了理智的特征及其理智对大学完成使命的重要性.他认为自由教育的目的是理智培养,大学的使命在于理智的训练,其观点虽然有过于保守和偏颇的一面,但其思想却是极其深刻且富有洞察力,对现代大学完成使命具有重要的借鉴意义.     

贫困地区农村人口能力贫困的性别差异——基于湖北省贫困县的农户调查

利用来自贫困地区农户调查数据,采取列联分析和方差检验分析的方法从健康和教育两个方面对贫困地区农村人口能力贫困的性别差异进行考察和分析。研究发现,贫困地区农村人口在健康和教育水平上具有显著的性别差异,与男性相比,女性人口处于能力更贫困状态。但在15岁以下的未成年时期和55岁以上的老年时期,男女健康投资的差别与性别无关。家庭主妇的教育程度对农户家庭经济状况具有显著影响。在分析性别差异形成原因基础上,本文提出了相应的对策建议。     

Persistence and withdrawal by students in a preservice science and mathematics teacher education course

At a time when recruitment into preservice teacher education courses in mathematics and science is difficult, one strategy to increase the number of graduates is to minimise the number of students who fail to complete their university courses. This study sought to determine factors which distinguish withdrawers from persisters in the first semester of a B.Ed course. Discriminant analysis was employed; a discriminant function employing seven factors resulted in correct classification in 81% of cases. Further analysis distinguishing between dropouts and transferees resulted in two discriminant functions with some common variables. Specializations: Science Education, Pedagogy. Specializations: Science Education, Inservice Teacher Education, Metacognition