Effective ranking and search techniques for Web resources considering semantic relationships

On the Semantic Web, the types of resources and the semantic relationships between resources are defined in an ontology. By using that information, the accuracy of information retrieval can be improved.     

University Knowledge Production and Innovation: Getting a Grip

Today universities are increasingly seen as motors of innovation: they not only need to provide trained manpower and publications to society, but also new products, new processes and new services that create firms, jobs, and economic growth. This function of universities is controversial, and a huge and still expanding literature has tried to understand it. The approach of this paper is integrative; it uses the existing literature to answer a number of straightforward questions about the creation of innovations with university knowledge production: how does this happen, to what extent, and if it is desirable. In this way this article grounds the issue. Creating innovation with university knowledge production is relevant, justified and important but this has not been, is not and will not become the core function of universities. The existing literature, in other words, overestimates the importance of university knowledge production - in general, and for innovation in particular.     

Dipe-D: A Tool for Knowledge-Based Query Formulation in Information Retrieval

The paper reports the development of Dipe-D, a knowledge-based procedure for the formulation of Boolean queries in information retrieval. Dipe-D creates a query in two steps: (1) the user's information need is developed interactively, while identifying the concepts of the information need, and subsequently (2) the collection of concepts identified is automatically transformed into a Boolean query. In the first step, the subject area—as represented in a knowledge base—is explored by the user. He does this by means of specifying the (concepts that meet his) information need in an artificial language and looking through the solution as provided by the computer. The specification language allows one to specify concepts by their features, both in precise terms as well as vaguely. By repeating the process of specifying the information need and exploring the resulting concepts, the user may precisely single out the concepts that describe his information need. In the second step, the program provides the designations (and variants) for the concepts identified, and connects them by appropriate operators. Dipe-D is meant to improve on existing procedures that identify the concepts less systematically, create a query manually, and then sometimes expand that query. Experiments are reported on each of the two steps; they indicate that the first step identifies only but not all the relevant concepts, and the second step performs (at least) as good as human beings do.     

The Assessment Skills and Knowledge Standards: Professionalizing the work of assessing student learning and development

A new set of standards to guide professional development in assessment among student affairs professionals and faculty members is poised to revolutionize how educators learn to conduct this essential work.     

Acquiring an attacking forehand drive: the effects of static and dynamic environmental conditions

Two groups of 10 novice subjects each were trained to perform attacking forehand drives in table tennis and land the balls as fast and as accurately as possible onto a target on the opposite side of the net under two different training conditions. Under the static training condition, the balls were to be struck from a constant position, and under the dynamic training condition, balls approached the subjects in a normal way. Both groups were tested under dynamic conditions prior to and after four days of training, during which they received 1,600 practice trials. Both groups of subjects were shown to increase the number of balls that landed on the target, and learning was also evident from an increased consistency of the direction of travel of the bat at the moment of ball/bat contact. However, no increase in consistency was found for the location of the bat at the moment of ball/bat contact and for the movement times. Thus, learning can occur in the absence of externally generated time-to-contact information, but this is not due to the establishment of a consistent movement form. Learning appears to progress from control at the moment of ball/bat contact backward, toward the moment of initiation.     

The influence of grandparents’ social class on children’s aspirations

Social class mobility from grandparent to grandchild is a relatively neglected topic. Grandparents today are often healthier and more active, and have longer relationships with their grandchildren than in previous generations. We used data from the UK’s Millennium Cohort Study (n = 8570) to investigate the influence of maternal and paternal grandparents’ social class on the aspirations of children at age seven. Using path analysis and controlling for family income, mother’s and father’s education, lone motherhood, and child’s ethnicity and gender, we found very small direct effects from the paternal grandmother’s social class to the grandchild’s classed aspirations, and small, indirect effects, via parents’ class, of grandparents’ class on child’s classed aspirations. Multi-group analyses found few differences by ethnicity and gender. There was no evidence that, at this age, mixed-class parentage raises the aspirations of working-class children (the ‘sunken middle-class’ hypothesis).     

Creating an Ofsted story: the role of early years assessment data in schools’ narratives of progress

This paper explores the growing importance of measures of progress in judgements of schools’ effectiveness in England, with a focus on the role of the early years (settings for children aged 2–5) in providing data for these measures. Qualitative data from a research project involving three diverse school-based and pre-compulsory early years settings are used to explore how teachers and school leaders prioritise the collection of data in their every-day practice, in order to show how children make continual progress. The need for a narrative of progress as children move up through the primary school, an ‘Ofsted story’ for the school inspection service, is discussed alongside recent policy which requires a ‘baseline’ assessment at age four. We argue that there is a reification of progress in schools and early years settings, and that this changes the status of early years within the sector.     

Two secondary teachers’ understanding and classroom practice of dialogic teaching: a case study

Dialogic Teaching (DT) is effective in fostering student learning; yet, it is hard to implement. Little research focused on secondary teachers’ learning of DT and on the link between teachers’ understanding and practices, although these two are usually strongly intertwined. Using a wide range of evidence, this case study systematically investigated and compared two secondary teachers’ understanding and practice of DT during their participation in a continuing professional development programme (CPDP). The CPDP appeared effective to some extent. The History teacher’s understanding of DT, i.e. being a co-learner, appeared highly effective in implementing DT, whereas the Mathematics teacher’s understanding of DT, i.e. creating a democratic learning environment, seemed only effective to some extent. Focusing on both teachers’ understanding and practice when developing DT seemed fruitful in explaining differences in practice. Future research could further explore to what extent understanding DT as being a co-learner facilitates professional development.