Balancing Act for the Future: How the Academic Library Engages in Collection Development at the Local and Consortial Levels

ABSTRACT

Collection development remains a major focus and concern of current interest for all types of libraries. Consortia began as a means of sharing resources and of leveraging purchasing power for its members. How does a library balance its individual collection needs, both present and future, when it is a member of a consortium? Do the expectations of the consortium outweigh the needs of the individual library member? This article will address how an academic library engages in collection development at the local and consortia levels, addresses the benefits and challenges of consortia memberships, and responds to its local patrons in light of its obligations and commitment to a consortium.     

Development of a Learning Progression for the Formation of the Solar System

This study describes the process of defining a hypothetical learning progression (LP) for astronomy around the big idea of Solar System formation. At the most sophisticated level, students can explain how the formation process led to the current Solar System by considering how the planets formed from the collapse of a rotating cloud of gas and dust. Development of this LP was conducted in 2 phases. First, we interviewed middle school, high school, and college students (N?=?44), asking them to describe properties of the current Solar System and to explain how the Solar System was formed. Second, we interviewed 6th-grade students (N?=?24) before and after a 15-week astronomy curriculum designed around the big idea. Our analysis provides evidence for potential levels of sophistication within the hypothetical LP, while also revealing common alternative conceptions or areas of limited understanding that could form barriers to progress if not addressed by instruction. For example, many students' understanding of Solar System phenomena was limited by either alternative ideas about gravity or limited application of momentum in their explanations. Few students approached a scientific-level explanation, but their responses revealed possible stepping stones that could be built upon with appropriate instruction.     

网络学习情绪诱发与测量综述

传统学习情绪与网络学习情绪有很多相似之处,但由于网络的虚拟性使得网络学习情绪增加了复杂性。为了清楚地认识网络学习情绪的诱发与测量,本吏从教育心理学的应用视角出发,系统地介绍了认知失调理论、情绪一认知模型、成功一失败操作范式、情绪设计以发虚假生物反馈五种网络学习情绪的诱发方法,以及自我报告法、生理指标和行为指标的情绪测量方法及其在教育实践中的应用,并对目前网络学习情绪诱发和测量的发展现状进行了总结和展望,期望以此清晰网络学习情绪诱发的本质,并为今后的研究工作提供参考。     

澳门特区免费幼儿教育政策研究

澳门特区自2007～2008学年开始实施15年免费教育,即9年义务教育、3年高中教育和3年学前教育免费.研究者运用网络调查及访谈法,对澳门特区免费幼儿教育政策进行研究,结果发现:(1)免费幼儿教育政策只适用于6家公办幼儿园和42家加入免费教育学校系统的私立幼儿园.(2)7家未加入免费教育学校系统的私立幼儿园需缴学费、补充服务费和选择性服务费,但可获政府发放的学费津贴和书簿费.家长很满意这一政策,并表示愿意继续送孩子上收费的私立幼儿园.(3)受访园(校)长、家长及教师对澳门的免费幼儿教育政策都很满意,教师特别满意政府推出的幼儿园教师津贴.(4)免费幼儿教育政策对私立园所的影响有所不同:有些私立园所为了生存而选择加入免费教育学校系统,有些私立园所则为了校政自主而选择不加入免费教育学校系统.客观上,高收费门槛令不同阶层家庭的幼儿自然分流.     

Majors and credits in public speaking

If politics is an art, then matters of style must be crucial to its practice. This essay considers how political actions are shaped by rhetorical practices that depend upon aesthetic perceptions. Modern assumptions of artistic autonomy are replaced by the classical concept of decorum, which offers a model for understanding how political life is styled for rhetorical effect. The role of decorousness in contemporary politics is illustrated by the extreme case of the courtly style, which constitutes power through propriety, is centered on the king's body, displaces speech with gesture, and ends in political paralysis.     

Dispelling Myths about Latino Parent Participation in Schools

This qualitative study was conducted to discuss and dispel commonly held myths about Latino parents' involvement in their children's education. Differences between teacher perceptions of Latino parent involvement and parents' understanding of their roles in supporting their children's education—including the learning and use of the English language—were explored. Results indicated that some teachers held negative perceptions of Latino parents. The study also revealed that Latino parents had high expectations of their children's academic achievement and wanted to be more involved in their education, but felt excluded from the school community.     

Educational attainment in the short and long term: was there an advantage to attending faith,private, and selective schools for pupils in the 1980s?

ABSTRACT

This paper asks whether private, selective, and faith schools in England and Wales in the 1980s provided an academic advantage to their pupils, both in the short and longer term. Using longitudinal data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, we examine academic outcomes in compulsory schooling and further education, and the highest qualification gained by age 42. School sector differences are substantially attenuated by controlling for prior pupil characteristics. Nevertheless, a residual effect of private, grammar, and secondary modern schooling remains, both in the short and long term, controlling for both pupil and school characteristics. In the case of faith schools, however, the apparent advantage is restricted to the short term once pupil characteristics are controlled. A unique feature of our analysis is that we control for the individual’s faith of upbringing, which is important in reducing what could otherwise be seen as a distinctive Catholic school advantage.     

IMPACT OF ILLITERACY ON REHABILITATION OF COMMUNICATION DISORDERS: PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS

The number of older illiterate adults seeking therapy for acquired communication disorders is increasing. Communication bias may place health‐care professionals at risk for providing appropriate services to these patients. There is a need to identify illiterate patients, and to study the impact of current diagnostic and rehabilitative procedures on them. Possible effects of illiteracy on hearing‐impaired, aphasic, and laryngectomy patients are discussed, and preliminary suggestions for providing comprehensive rehabilitative services to them are provided.     

Rethinking assessment and inequality: the production of disparities in attainment in early years education

Despite decades of research and debate, the issue of unequal outcomes continues to be a concern in educational systems worldwide. In England, published data relating to pupils’ attainment across ethnic groups and by class indicators has been used to demonstrate continued inequalities in schools. This article attempts to deconstruct the relationship between assessment results and inequality by questioning the assumption that results only record inequality, rather than being implicated in its production. Interview data related to the case of a statutory teacher assessment system in early years education are used to show how assessment results may be influenced by pressure from external advisors, who only recognise certain patterns of results as intelligible. These recognisable patterns, it is argued, relate to wider discourses of class, race and the ‘inner city’, through which the pupils in these schools are constituted as inevitably low attaining. In addition, monitoring systems based on ‘value added’ methodologies provide an incentive to deflate assessment results in this first year of school. The article concludes that we need to rethink exactly what apparent disparities in assessment results actually represent, particularly given the increasing use of teacher assessment in the school system in England.