Application of Excel® Pivot Tables and Pivot Charts for Efficient Library Data Analysis and Illustration

ABSTRACT

Excel® pivot tables and pivot charts are ideal tools for increasing efficiency in previously time-consuming tasks involved in the analysis of library data, such as electronic resource usage statistics. Building upon the background presented in an introductory article, this companion article continues with information concerning essential techniques and applications. Data must be properly formatted in preparation for its use with pivot tables and pivot charts. Steps in the creation of both pivot tables and pivot charts are detailed along with potential pitfalls. Best practices are covered with specific tips for ensuring accurate results.     

Testing Expert-Based Versus Student-Based Cognitive Models for a Grade 3 Diagnostic Mathematics Assessment

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the adequacy of three cognitive models, one developed by content experts and two generated from student verbal reports for explaining examinee performance on a grade 3 diagnostic mathematics test. For this study, the items were developed to directly measure the attributes in the cognitive model. The performance of each cognitive model was evaluated by examining its fit to different data samples: verbal report, total, high-, moderate-, and low ability using the Hierarchy Consistency Index (Cui & Leighton, 2009), a model-data fit index. This study utilized cognitive diagnostic assessments developed under the framework of construct-centered test design and analyzed using the Attribute Hierarchy Method (Gierl, Wang, & Zhou, 2008; Leighton, Gierl, & Hunka, 2004). Both the expert-based and the student-based cognitive models provided excellent fit to the verbal report and high ability samples, but moderate to poor fit to the total, moderate and low ability samples. Implications for cognitive model development for cognitive diagnostic assessment are discussed.     

Looking to the future: producing transdisciplinary professionals for leadership in early childhood settings

This paper reports on an Australian initiative Developing and Sustaining Pedagogical Leadership in Early Childhood Education and Care Professionals, where academics and professionals shared knowledge, experience and research about transdisciplinary practice. The project aimed to develop an understanding of the strategies and skills early childhood professionals and practitioners required to strengthen pedagogical leadership when working in multi-agency organisations. The conceptual framework underpinning the design, analysis and evaluation of the project was bricolage. Bricolage enabled the researchers, professionals and practitioners and other organisational members to consider the principles of multiplicity, complexity, relationality and criticality. The use of bricolage created an opportunity for a more comprehensive level of analysis to occur. A model of professional development emerged from the analysis of the data and was subsequently used to develop an open source learning website.     

The impact of unproductive and top researchers on overall university research performance

Unlike competitive higher education systems, non-competitive systems show relatively uniform distributions of top researchers and low performers among universities. In this study, we examine the impact of unproductive and top faculty members on overall research performance of the university they belong to. Furthermore, we analyze the potential relationship between research productivity of a university and the indexes of concentration of unproductive and top researchers. Research performance is evaluated using a bibliometric approach, through publications indexed on the Web of Science between 2004 and 2008. The set analyzed consists of all Italian universities active in the hard sciences.     

Implicit Association Tests of Attitudes Toward Persons With Disabilities

The authors assessed 3 of the currently available implicit association tests designed to measure attitudes toward persons with disabilities. The Revised Multiple Disability Implicit Association Test, the Implicit Association Test for Attitudes Toward Athletes With Disabilities, and the Disability Attitude Implicit Association Test were related to each other, demonstrating some consistency in measurement. They were mostly unrelated, however, to more traditional, explicit measures of attitudes toward persons with disabilities. In addition, although the implicit association tests were not related to socially desirable responding, the most psychometrically sound explicit measure (The Interaction With Disabled Persons Scale) was related to socially desirable responding.     

The use and value of Bernstein’s work in studying (in)equalities in undergraduate social science education

This paper illustrates how critical use of Basil Bernstein's theory illuminates the mechanisms by which university knowledge, curriculum and pedagogy both reproduce and interrupt social inequalities. To this end, empirical examples are selected from the findings of the ESRC-funded project ‘Pedagogic Quality and Inequality in University First Degrees' (RES-062-23-1438, November 2008–January 2012). The project investigated sociology-related social science degrees in four social science departments in universities in different positions in influential UK higher education league tables. A Bernsteinian lens throws fresh light on how university education might contribute to a more egalitarian society.     

An Examination of the Effects of Mediated Intragroup and Intergroup Interactions among Latino/a Characters

Content analytic work has consistently shown that Latinas are consistently found to be one of the most sexualized social groups in the media. In this study we experimentally examined the implications of exposure to the sexualized depiction of Latinas (among non-Latino viewers), when presented in the media in a within group context (Latina-Latino portrayal) and an intergroup context (Latina-White male portrayal). Findings suggest that when in an intergroup interaction, sexualized Latinas are evaluated more favorably and elicit less negative emotion than sexualized Latinas in an intragroup interaction. Implications are discussed within the context of mediated intergroup contact and intergroup emotion.     

The Early College High School Initiative: An Overview of Five Evaluation Years

In 2002, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation started the Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI). Through this initiative, more than 200 Early College Schools (ECSs) opened by fall 2009. All of the schools aim to provide underserved students access to college classes while in high school. This article will provide an overview of the first 6 years of the ECHSI, and key findings across 5 years of the ECHSI evaluation, in particular highlighting how participants have implemented the ECHSI's core principles. However, the ECS is not a rigid model, and this article describes the variations in ECS implementation. Finally, this article documents outcomes such as attendance, grade-to-grade progression and graduation rates, student performance on assessments, and college credit accrual.     

Young children category learning: a training study

From an integrative approach, this work focuses on the role of conceptual mechanisms, such as comparison and conceptual-based inference, and sociopragmatic support in young children's taxonomic categorization. “Experiment 1” assessed whether 3-, 4-, and 6-year-old children succeed in detecting taxonomic relations on their own. A clear developmental trend was found: 6-year-olds succeeded, whereas 4- and 3-year-olds relied primarily on perceptually based categories. “Experiment 2” assessed if 3-year-olds are able to change their perceptual response into a taxonomic categorization as a function of the co-occurrence of contingent category information and feedback in an interactive process with an adult (experimenter). A pretest–posttest training study compared 3-year-olds' performance in four conditions: comparison, conceptual-based, information-only, and feedback-only. A perceptual–totaxonomic shift was found only in the comparison and conceptual-based training groups. Children who only received either category information or corrective feedback did not make such a shift. The results show that social interaction with supportive adults is a mechanism that drives conceptual understanding in early childhood.     

A philosophical perspective on leading music activities for the over 50s

The basis of this article is findings from the Music for Life Project which investigated the benefits and challenges of music activity participation for the over 50s in three case study sites in the United Kingdom. The paper uses a philosophical lens to explore the leaders’ and participants’ views on the purpose of the activities, how learners are characterised, the role of the activity leader, and the use of assessment. Data from 147 participant and 13 activity leader questionnaires, from 28 participant and 13 activity leader individual interviews, and from 15 participant focus groups were analysed within a philosophical framework that refers to six approaches: liberal, progressive, behaviourist, humanistic, radical and analytic. NVivo and SPSS assisted with the quantitative and qualitative analyses. The analyses indicated that humanism was prevalent although other approaches, particularly behaviourist and progressive, were evident. Activity leaders’ emphasis on humanism might lead to more concern with the comfort side of participation than with musical progression. There was very little use of formal assessment or feedback to support progression. There was some discrepancy between purposes for participation between leaders and participants. There might be a need to clarify purpose, particularly if activities are part of adult education rather than adult social groups.