Mobile and Information Literacy Perceptions and Skills of Library and Information Sciences and Humanities Students From Bulgaria and Turkey

Welcome to the Global Postcards column! We are so excited to bring you news and projects from around the world. In this column, our contributors from Bulgaria and Turkey bring us a comparative study of mobile and information literacy among students at two universities in those countries. In addition to presenting perceptions of students around these literacy concepts, their research project also highlights growing trends in the use of distance education and web-based study materials. Thanks to the contributors for this issue, and please keep the submissions coming!

If you would like to send a submission, please contact either of the column's co-editors: Jacqueline Solis, jsolis@email.unc.edu, and Robin Kear, rlk25@pitt.edu.     

Dynamische verteilte Objekte

Zusammenfassung.   Aus Modellierungs- und Implementationssicht ergeben sich unterschiedliche Anforderungen an das Objektmodell in verteilten Systemen. Einerseits stehen Objekteigenschaften wie Datenabstraktion, Datenkapselung, Modularit?t und Zugriffschutz im Vordergrund. Andererseits stellen sich Fragen der implementationstechnischen Umsetzung der r?umlichen und zeitlichen Entkopplung, der Parallelit?t, der Substitution, der Konstruktion und der Evolution von Objekten bzw. von Teilen eines Objektes. Letztgenannte Anforderungen resultieren aus der Verteilung und der Systemdynamik, die nicht nur verteilten Systemen eigen ist. Wir stellen in diesem Beitrag ein Konzept vor, das es erlaubt, Objekte in verteilten Systemen flexibel implementieren und konfigurieren zu k?nnen. Besonderes Gewicht legen wir auf die Unterstützung des Objektentwicklers und -implementierers, ohne auf die Modellierungsvorzüge des Objektmodells zu verzichten. Wir diskutieren die Anforderungen und leiten daraus unser Entkopplungskonzept für verteilte Objektsysteme ab. Auf der Basis der CORBA wurde ein Prototyp erstellt, der die Umsetzung dieser Anforderungen demonstriert. Eingegangen am 1. Juli 1997 / Angenommen am 6. Februar 1998     

Touching the didactic contract—a student perspective on intergenerational touch in PE

A growing anxiety around intergenerational touch in educational settings has both emerged and increased in recent years. Previous research reveals that Physical Education (PE) teachers have become more cautious in their approaches to students and they avoid physical contact or other behavior that could be regarded as suspicious [Fletcher, 2013. Touching practice and physical education: Deconstruction of a contemporary moral panic. Sport, Education and Society, 18(5), 694–709. doi:10.1080/13573322.2013.774272; Öhman, 2016. Losing touch—teachers’ self-regulation in physical education. European Physical Education Review, 1–14. doi:10.1177/1356336X15622159; Piper, Garratt, & Taylor, 2013. Child abuse, child protection and defensive ‘touch’ in PE teaching and sports coaching. Sport, Education and Society, 18(5), 583–598. doi:10.1080/13573322.2012.735653]. Some also feel anxious about how physical contact might be perceived by the students. The purpose of this article is to investigate physical contact between teachers and students in PE from a student perspective. This is understood through the didactic contract. For this purpose, focus group interviews using photo elicitation have been conducted with upper secondary school students in Sweden. One of the major findings is that intergenerational touch is purpose bound, that is, physical contact is considered relevant if the teacher has a good intention with using physical contact. The main agreements regarding physical contact as purpose bound are the practical learning and emotional aspects, such as learning new techniques, preventing injury, closeness and encouragement. The didactic contract is in these aspects stable and obvious. The main disagreements are when teachers interfere when the students want to feel capable or when teachers interfere when physical contact is not required in the activity. In these aspects the didactic contract is easily breached. It is also evident that personal preference has an impact on how physical contact is perceived. In conclusion, we can say that physical contact in PE is not a question of appropriate or inappropriate touch in general, but rather an agreement between the people involved about what is expected. Consequently, we should not ban intergenerational touch, but rather focus on teachers’ abilities to deal professionally with the didactic contract regarding physical contact.     

The creative use of companion values in environmental education and education for sustainable development: exploring the educative moment

Our paper addresses the emergence and evolution of values in educational settings. It builds upon and extends earlier work on companion meanings to develop a theory of the creative use of companion values and meanings in education. The recognition of companion values in educational practices highlight epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic transactions that occur in ways we characterize as ‘other than modern.’ Introducing the idea of educative moments allows us to identify situations where value spheres interpenetrate and interrogate each other in the meaning-making of students and teachers. These moments occur when students suddenly experience companion meanings and values such that teacher and student must deliberate together rather than the teacher dictating some dominating epistemological, ethical, or aesthetic value. This way, it is possible to accommodate critical and creative reflection in education where new values can emerge or evolve. We illustrate the theory by empirical examples from classroom conversations.     

The role of knowledge in participatory and pluralistic approaches to ESE

The purpose of this article is to investigate in situ the functions that knowledge has when used by students in argumentative discussions. The study is based on Dewey’s pragmatic perspective of knowledge, which means that knowledge gets its meaning in the activity at hand. The analyses are conducted using Transactional Argumentation Analysis, which is a combination of pragmatic meaning analysis and Toulmin’s argument pattern. The empirical material consists of video-recorded lessons from two seminars in a Swedish upper secondary school. The results show that knowledge plays a crucial role in the discussions. Six different functions are identified: emphasising complexity, clarifying and correcting, highlighting conflicting interests, providing evidence in a counterargument, predicting the consequences and adding support to an earlier claim. Knowledge also has general functions, such as justifying a claim, and is part of a collective process aimed at understanding the issues discussed. Further, the students use knowledge from different disciplines, such as environmental studies, history, politics, biology and human geography.     

Testing Measurement Equivalence of Eudaimonic and Hedonic Entertainment Motivations in a Cross-cultural Comparison

Within Hofstede’s framework of individualistic and collectivistic cultures, this contribution examines measurement equivalence of hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment motivations in two different cultures, namely Germany representing a more individualistic culture (N = 180) and Turkey representing a more collectivistic culture (N = 97). By means of a multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, we could secure configural invariance for both hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment motivations across the German and Turkish sample. Metric invariance, however, could only be obtained for hedonic, but not for eudaimonic motivations. Scalar invariance was obtained for neither of the two entertainment motivations. The study points to the importance of equivalence testing when conducting cross-cultural research.     

Die schwedische Schulreform

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Transient heat conduction in an anisotropic medium in cylindrical coordinates

Three dimensional, time dependent heat conduction for an anisotropic medium of a triclinic system is solved for an infinitely long hollow or solid cylinder of finite radius with a restriction ε₂₃ = ε₁₂ε₁₃. Several special cases are obtained from the present solution.     

Accreditation in Turkish universities

In Turkey, students are more and more willing to participate in the global free movement of students and of high-skilled labour after their graduation. This is why they request international accreditation from universities. Therefore, accreditation is one of the parameters that play an important role in students' university selection. On the other hand, Turkey is aiming to be a European Union member. This imposes institutional legal and civil arrangements and harmonization. Also, the general trend of globalization dictates requirements from university graduates that are answered in best business practice in which accreditation is a major component. In this paper, accreditation efforts to achieve international recognition for Turkish universities are discussed. For this purpose information on higher education is given. Attempts for accreditation on licensure through FEANI is explained. Accreditation on department programmes by ABET (USA) and by an engineering institution (UK) are discussed and their similarities are pinpointed. Also, a Turkish, British and World Bank quality assessment pilot project for education and research is discussed.