How are we now? Real-time mood-monitoring as valuation

In a digital society, we are frequently invited to communicate our present affective state via interfaces. These include smart-phone apps which allow users to track their mood in ‘real-time’, plus touchpads in organisations and public spaces which seek rapid feedback on whether an experience is positive or negative. In contrast to the use of surveys as tools of valuation, these technologies seek to capture experience in ‘real-time’, which can then be viewed and evaluated critically at a later time. Based on study of a number of mood-monitoring technologies, this paper highlights some of the ways in which they challenge conventional accounts of (e)valuation. In particular, rather than inviting individuals to represent their feelings towards the past numerically, they invite them to make uncritical expressions of positive or negative mood in the present. The central question of value is no longer how much is something valued, but whether or not it is valued. Quantitative and calculated analysis of positive and negative emotions occurs subsequently.     

Measuring the ethnic diversity of the museum workforce and the impact and cost of positive-action training,with particular reference to the Diversify scheme

This paper attempts to determine the ethnic profile (sometimes called “cultural diversity”) of the museum sector workforce. It sets the museum sector workforce in the context of the population as a whole and makes some comparisons to the diversity of the wider cultural sector workforce. It looks also at positive action training schemes, targeted at under-represented minority groups, in particular the Museums Association's Diversify scheme, looking at their cost and effectiveness in securing employment. It also describes other positive action schemes such as Arts Council England's Inspire programme and Diversify management-level traineeships and traineeships for deaf and disabled people. It tentatively considers the impact and value for money of positive-action training. It also sets out the legal and policy context for workforce diversification, in particular the implications for data collection of section 37 of the Race Relations Act 1976.

The headline finding is that the proportion of people from minority-ethnic backgrounds in the UK museum sector increased from 2.5% in 1993 to about 7% in 2006–2008. This varies between 1.3% and 10.4% depending on the type of museum and the type of job and compares to an overall minority-ethnic working age population of 12.6% in England in 2008.

There is a significant under-representation of most (but probably not all) minority-ethnic groups in most areas of museum work. The paper concludes by making brief suggestions about how policy makers and researchers might respond.     

Self‐esteem and National Tests in Years 2 and 6: a 4‐year longitudinal study

ABSTRACT This 4‐year longitudinal study measured the self‐esteem, reading and mathematical attainments of four cohorts of children on two occasions‐‐in Year 2 and again in Year 6. All Year 2 children(N = 842) in five randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority (LEA) comprised the sample, of which 588 were present in Year 6. The Lawseq questionnaire (Lawrence, 1982), Mathematics 7 and 11 (NFER, 1987a, b) and the Primary Reading Test Levels 1 and 2 (France, 1981) were administered to this sample. Results showed that Cohorts 3 and 4 had the lowest self‐esteem scores in Year 2 and the highest in Year 6 (significant at the 0.1% level). Attainments in mathematics were stable over the 4 years, but reading comprehension means were significantly higher in Year 6 than Year 2 (at the 0.1% level). Discussion centres on the age effects of self‐esteem responses as well as the effects of context and domain specific factors on self‐esteem.     

Will the Curriculum Caterpillar Ever Learn to Fly?

This paper examines New Labour's curriculum policies since its election to office in May 1997. It begins with an overview of the curriculum legacy inherited by New Labour from the previous Conservative government. New Labour's curriculum polices are then analysed in relation to the continuities and disjunctures with those of its predecessor. It is argued that under New Labour ‘standards’ has replaced ‘curriculum’ as the discursive hub of educational policy making. This discursive shift has led to the government imposing greater control over classroom pedagogy in order to meet prespecified educational targets. Moreover, it has engendered policies that substantially erode the principle of a broad and balanced curriculum entitlement, generally regarded one of the redeeming features of the 1988 Education Reform Act. The paper concludes with some tentative suggestions for a conception of curriculum that will more effectively meet the challenges of the 21st century     

Comparing Definitions of Democracy in Education L

The growth of democratisation reveals tensions associated with the concept and practice of democracy, particularly as applied to education. Such tensions include either suspicions of Western imperialism or—at the other end of the spectrum—the enthusiastic embracing of neo‐liberal market versions. There can be associations both with equity and with anarchy, or the assumption that democracy is only about majority rule. This paper proposes an eight‐point model by which to compare systems: this looks at values, rights, system structures, school processes, learning content, balance, training and outcomes. The paper goes on to outline ways to identify indicators of democracy and adherence to human rights in school structures and processes. Examples are given of the different ways democracy can be interpreted at different levels in a country. The argument is that such comparisons and understandings of language and process are essential if international collaboration towards democracy and development is to be achieved.     

科学和科学家的一千年:988-1988

1982年,我公布了一项针对<科学家传记词典>(简称DSB)[Gillispie 1970-1978;Holmes 1990]中出现的829名英国科学家进行的调查[Davies,1982].有关英国人的科学才华的源泉,这份调查揭示出许多一般性的结论.这些结论的正确性是由其资料源的可靠性所保证的.<科学家传记词典>具有敏锐的学术判断力,因此根据其内容所作出的总结具有着实质性的意义.……     

Physical activity and lipidomics in a population at high risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus

ABSTRACT

The aim was to investigate how measurements of the lipidome differ according to the level and intensity of physical activity in a population at high risk of type 2 diabetes (T2DM). A targeted metabolomics platform provided quantitative molecular data on lipid species. Linear regression examined the associations between plasma lipid concentrations, particle size and time spent in objectively measured physical activity intensity domains, in increments of 500 counts per minute (cpm) (up to >4500 cpm (~>5.6METs)). Results are presented as % difference in the concentration (lower/higher) or particle size (smaller/larger) per 10 min of activity within each intensity. Five hundred and nine participants were included. Time spent in the lowest physical activity intensity domain (<500 cpm) was unfavourably associated with VLDL (2%), HDL (?2%) and Apolipoprotein A-1 particle concentrations (?2%) and HDL diameter (?2%). Conversely, time spent in intensities ≥1000 cpm were favourably associated with HDL subclass concentrations; with stronger associations seen at moderate intensities (2000-3999 cpm (~4.5METs)). For Apolipoprotein-B concentration and VLDL particle concentration and size, a negative association was consistently observed at the highest physical activity intensity only. If these associations are causal, HDL subclasses appear sensitive to light-intensities whereas only the high category of physical activity intensity was consistently associated with VLDL subclasses.     

Inclusion and mastery: variations on the theme of subjection

This article undertakes a discursive analysis of the concepts of ‘inclusion’ and ‘mastery’ using memory stories generated in a collective biography workshop. The five authors analysed their memories from childhood and adolescence on two separate and competing concepts that currently inform educational practice: inclusion and mastery. These stories of mastery/non‐mastery and inclusion/exclusion often exceeded or transgressed dominant normative discourses concerning the competent performance of autonomous selves. Drawing on the work of several theorists, they authors explored these transgressions. In so doing, their analysis extends Butler’s theorising of the human subject as constituted through processes of exclusion and differentiation.