Students’ self-grading,professor’s grading and negotiated final grading at three university programmes: analysis of reliability and grade difference ranges and tendencies

This study was undertaken at three teacher education programmes and was designed to determine the following within each programme: (1) the reliability correlations among students’ self‐grade (SSG), the grade granted by the professor (PG) and the negotiated final grade (NFG); (2) the range and frequency of grade differences between SSG and PG; and (3) the tendency of the negotiation on NFG as compared to SSG (i.e. NFG > SSG or NFG < SSG), when SSG was not equal to PG. The samples were made up of three professors and their corresponding student groups (students, n = 100, 34 and 53, respectively), each in a different teacher education programme. The results show that there was a high reliability correlation among SSG, PG and NFG in all three programmes. Furthermore, in these programmes, the grade differences were never higher than 1.5 on a scale of 0 to 10 points; in fact, agreement between DDG and PG was reached 96%, 35.29% and 43.39% of the time), and, when disagreement emerged, it was mainly within a minimum range of 0.1 to 0.5 points. As for the tendency of NFG versus SSG in each programme, slightly higher percentages were obtained for NFG > SSG in Programmes B and C, whereas the opposite (NFG < SSG) was true in Programme A; overall, however, it could be said that both tendencies balanced each other out, being the total percentages in each programme 0%, 41% and 30% for NFG > SSG; and 4%, 23% and 26%, for NFG < SSG, respectively.     

A further step forward in measuring journals’ scientific prestige: The SJR2 indicator

A new size-independent indicator of scientific journal prestige, the SJR2 indicator, is proposed. This indicator takes into account not only the prestige of the citing scientific journal but also its closeness to the cited journal using the cosine of the angle between the vectors of the two journals’ cocitation profiles. To eliminate the size effect, the accumulated prestige is divided by the fraction of the journal's citable documents, thus eliminating the decreasing tendency of this type of indicator and giving meaning to the scores. Its method of computation is described, and the results of its implementation on the Scopus 2008 dataset is compared with those of an ad hoc Journal Impact Factor, JIF(3y), and SNIP, the comparison being made both overall and within specific scientific areas. All three, the SJR2 indicator, the SNIP indicator and the JIF distributions, were found to fit well to a logarithmic law. Although the three metrics were strongly correlated, there were major changes in rank. In addition, the SJR2 was distributed more equalized than the JIF by Subject Area and almost as equalized as the SNIP, and better than both at the lower level of Specific Subject Areas. The incorporation of the cosine increased the values of the flows of prestige between thematically close journals.     

Conceptual Model for the Replacement of the Horn of a Nineteenth Century Phonograph

ABSTRACT

3D printing of missing parts of a cultural heritage artifact opens many possibilities and extends the challenges in the processes of intervention on cultural heritage assets. However, restoring these objects may not only mean the replacement of a missing element from its esthetic point of view, but restoring the function for which objects were created. In these processes, the replica of the object must be exact and of quality, but also specific. In this sense, the presented work is a multi-disciplinary attempt to reproduce the missing horn of a phonograph dated to the late nineteenth century. This phonograph belongs to the collection of the ‘Vicente Miralles Segarra’ Telecommunication Museum of the Universitat Politècnica de València. The objective was to recover its esthetic, didactic, and functional levels, i.e restoring its ability to emit sound. To this end, several models were printed with different materials, and the quality of the recorded sound with the different horns was evaluated, assessing their similarity to that obtained from an original horn.     

Critical analysis of the effects of the digital technologies on reading and learning / Análisis crítico sobre los efectos de las tecnologías digitales en la lectura y el aprendizaje

Abstract

In the digital age, the introduction of digital technologies (or information and communication technologies, ICT) in classrooms is a necessary, imperative reality. However, the educational results do not seem to match the expectations generated. For this reason, this revision seeks to make up for the scant attention paid to the possible harmful effects of the use of ICT based on research and educational practice. After providing a general overview of the impact of ICT on learning, we survey the results of studies that reveal potential negative consequences of their use inside and outside the school context. We analyse their impact on both academic performance and other more specific areas, such as reading comprehension, and we stress the negative effects on so-called ‘digital natives’. In short, what stands out is the importance of an evidence-based education practice which bears in mind the possible harmful effects of using ICT and bears in mind that its beneficial effects seem to rely on not only how much but also how they are used.     

Nothing to do with me! Teachers’ perceptions on cultural diversity in Spanish secondary schools

One of the key effects of globalisation is the extraordinary increase in migratory movements. Spain, a country traditionally accustomed to emigration, has seen a considerable rise in the influx of immigrant population, with notable demographic, social and cultural transformations. Particularly, since the early 90s, schools have been experiencing increasing ethnic diversity in their student enrolments. Especially, over the last 10 years, their presence has multiplied 10-fold, reaching 9.53% of the total student body. Thus, along with linguistic difference, class, gender or ability, the most characteristic feature of Spanish schools in recent years is their multicultural nature. For these reasons, it seems reasonable to focus on how Spanish schools, and particularly teachers, perceive and manage cultural diversity. This article reports on a multiple case design study concerning the teachers’ views on cultural diversity and the impact on daily practice in their classrooms. Participants included 16 teachers, with experience ranging from 2 to 20 years of teaching, from four Spanish secondary schools. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with the teachers from each school were chosen as the research method. Additionally, the principal and four immigrant student families from each school were also interviewed. Further information was obtained through a focus-group interview with the four school counsellors. Over a six-month period, all the interviews and complementary field work were carried out by a researcher in each school. While recognising the efforts to accommodate ethnic groups and immigrant populations, the results indicated that teachers perceive cultural diversity as a particular problem whose management is marginalised and excluded from the set of school activities and teaching practices. Teachers agree that the issue is one of adaptation, a problem to be solved by the students themselves with the support of school counsellors and other educational specialists. This way, neither school policies nor teaching practices assume the commitments arising from cultural diversity, so we cannot say that teachers incorporate it in their work, putting culturally relevant teaching into practice in their classrooms. While one of the benchmarks achieved in recent years is the presence of educational specialists in schools to address cultural diversity, the next step is to create the conditions to articulate a joint and collaborative effort between the teaching body and these professionals, bringing cultural diversity management closer to the classroom. Another pending challenge would be determining how we can best prepare teachers for organising and managing their culturally diverse classrooms. Teachers in these schools are doing their job without a professional knowledge base concerning multicultural education. Therefore, pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes should consider questions related to multicultural education and classroom management, which are absent or rarely taken into account in teacher training to date.     

Am I That Talented? The experiences of gifted individuals from diverse educational backgrounds at the postsecondary level

The experiences of gifted students at the postsecondary level have not been studied widely. The goal of the present study was to explore and describe gifted students’ perceptions of their first year after high school regarding experiences of success and failure. Two focus groups were conducted with 12 students (8 males, 4 females) from different educational backgrounds, who had participated in a university-based enrichment program, to discuss topics related to their academic and socio-emotional experiences at a postsecondary level. Many students who attended vocational high schools experienced high levels of discomfort with their academic preparedness to face postsecondary education. Other initial problems were adapting socially to a new environment and perceiving themselves as “less” gifted than their peers. However, after these initial adjustment problems, students revealed high perseverance to face difficulties and a strong motivation for continuing the academic path they had outlined for themselves. Conducting longitudinal research and rethinking college services offered for gifted students are some of the implications discussed in this study.     

Some effects of information and communications technology on teaching and learning in Iceland

Abstract

In this article the author describes the changing of traditional teaching patterns, how difficult and time-consuming such changing can be and how use of information and communications technology (ICT) may affect that change process. She gives an overview of some effects ICT appears to be having on teaching and learning in the Icelandic educational system. Teaching practices at the compulsory level of schooling in Iceland are described and indications presented on how little they appear to be changing. Effects on teaching practices in teacher education at Iceland University of Education are also discussed, with the trend towards distance education and net-based teaching and learning being by far the most noticeable     

The Electronic Cataloging in Publication Cataloging Partnership Program: A Model for Cooperative Cataloging for the Twenty-First Century

The Library of Congress’ Cataloging in Publication (CIP) Program has been in existence for forty years. During this time, the CIP Program has moved from a model where the Library of Congress created all pre-publication metadata for publishers to a partnership where other libraries share in the creation of metadata. This article documents the evolution of the Electronic Cataloging in Publication (ECIP) Cataloging Partnership Program. The ECIP Cataloging Partnership Program can be used as a model to leverage limited resources across libraries to the benefit of library users nationwide.     

Impact and structural features of meta-analytical studies,standard articles and reviews in psychology: Similarities and differences

Meta-analysis refers to the statistical methods used in research synthesis for combining and integrating results from individual studies. In this regard meta-analytical studies share with narrative reviews the goal of synthesizing the scientific literature on a particular topic, while as in the case of standard articles they present new results. This study aims to identify the potential similarities and differences between meta-analytical studies, reviews and standard articles as regards their impact and structural features in the field of psychology. To this end a random sample of 335 examples of each type of document were selected from the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database. The results showed that meta-analytical studies receive more citations than do both reviews and standard articles. All three types of documents showed a similar pattern in terms of institutional collaboration, while reviews and meta-analytical studies had a similar number of authors per document. However, reviews had a greater number of references and pages than did meta-analytical studies. The implications of these results for the scientific community are discussed.     

Psicosociología y escuela: hacia una psicopedagogía genética

RESUMEN

Ante el fracaso de las experiencias de la Educación Compensatoria y conscientes de que las desigualdades sociales superan el marco educativo y psicológico, el artículo intenta definir el papel de la interacción social en el proceso cognitivo. El método experimental consiste en estudiar el comportamiento de los niños en diversas tareas que ejecuten solos, en grupo o con un adulto, y de evaluar las repercusiones de sus interacciones sociales en el desarrollo cognitivo. Los resultados demuestran la función estructurante de la interacción social: el grupo mejora las respuestas del individuo, sobre todo en los niños más pequeños, y además favorece la interiorización del progreso y el desarrollo cognitivo. Estos progresos aparecen en situaciones denominadas de conflicto socio-cognitivo, que provocan en el individuo una regulación cognitiva. Las diferencias de ejecución entre los niños de bajo nivel socioeconómico después de la interacción y los niños de alto nivel antes de la fase de aprendizaje fueron inexistentes.