Roadkill on the electronic highway? The threat to the mathematical literature

This article begins with an analysis of reliability and usability in the mathematical literature. Mathematical practice is seen to be adapted to very high standards in these respects, and quite sensitive to even modest declines in quality. Unfortunately most scenarios for the transition to electronic publication suggest serious loss of quality. This is a problem special to mathematics: other sciences are adapted to lower standards, and should be much less sensitive to changes. Some ways to prevent this decline are suggested. A condensed version of this article appeared inNotices of the American Mathematical Society, 42, 1, January 1995. Published with permission of the American Mathematical Society.     

Assessing Marital Conflict from the Child''s Perspective: The Children''s Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale

Guided by Grych and Fincham's theoretical framework for investigating the relation between interparental conflict and child adjustment, a questionnaire was developed to assess children's views of several aspects of marital conflict. The Children's Perception of Interparental Conflict Scale (CPIC) was initially examined in a sample of 222 9-12-year-old children, and results were cross-validated in a second sample of 144 similarly aged children. 3 factor analytically derived subscales (Conflict Properties, Threat, Self-Blame) demonstrated acceptable levels of internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The validity of the Conflict Properties scale was supported by significant relations with parent reports of conflict and indices of child adjustment; the Threat and Self-Blame scales correlated with children's responses to specific conflict vignettes. The CPIC thus appears to be a promising instrument for assessing perceived marital conflict, and several issues regarding its interpretation are discussed.     

Correspondence Training as a Means of Improving Study Skills

This study was an attempt to encourage middle school pupils to use time spent on topic (project) work to better effect. They were taught some elements of correspondence training which required them to think ahead, to plan carefully what they were going to do in a certain time period and to make a forecast. At the end of each working session, they were required to look back at what they had achieved and to discuss the outcomes with a partner in terms of their success at forecasting and in achievement. Especially among the more able pupils, there were marked improvements in both quantity and quality of work produced     

Worked examples with errors: when self-explanation prompts hinder learning of teachers diagnostic competences on problem-based learning

To diagnose classroom situations is crucial for teachers’ everyday practice. The approach of worked examples with errors seems promising to support the diagnosis of classroom situations in student teachers (Stark et al. in Learn Instr 21(1):22–33, 2011). To enhance that approach, error-explanation prompts and an adaptable feedback method to help the learner realize why an error happened and how to prevent a recurrence might be beneficial. In this empirical study, we investigated whether error-explanation prompts and adaptable feedback can facilitate diagnostic competences. N = 108 student teachers took part in a 2 × 2 factorial design (with and without error-explanation prompts as well as with and without adaptable feedback). Error-explanation prompts had a positive effect on declarative-conceptual knowledge if combined with adaptable feedback. Student teachers might have realized a lack of basic concepts and focused their attention on the declarative-conceptual knowledge in the feedback. Contrary to our expectations, however, error-explanation prompts hindered rather than facilitated learning of practical diagnostic knowledge.     

Assumptions underlying performance‐based budgeting

Abstract

Interest in ‘performance budgeting’ is growing despite a lack of research on its effectiveness. U.S. states have largely used ‘incremental’ and ‘formula’ budgeting processes to fund higher education. However, more than half of them are experimenting with some form of ‘performance budgeting’. There have been similar attempts to reform budget practices in the U.S. in the past, but most of these processes have been largely abandoned. Governmental ‘performance budgeting’ for higher education assumes policy objectives are stable, complex decisions on budget trade‐offs can be made at governmental levels on the basis of data, institutions operate as bureaucracies, resources can be linked to outcomes, outcomes are identifiable and can be agreed upon, accountability can be achieved through budget policies, and current practices create incentives to enrol unqualified students. These assumptions are not realistic. Consequently, ‘performance budgeting’ will not meet proponents expectations and will suffer the fate of past budget fads.     

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY: ETV IN AN AUSTRALIAN COLLEGE

This paper is a case‐study of the development of educational television in a college of advanced education in Australia. It describes the key decisions in that development, and explores the significant variables which affected them, including both pragmatic factors, such as the availability of equipment and finance, and the skills and preferences of the people involved, and theoretical factors, such as the way in which certain attributes of the media interact with the individual differences of learners to effect particular types of learning

Implicit in the discussion is a number of philosophical questions, to do with the relationship between science and technology, with the notion of science and research, and with the nature and power of the human mind     

Mnemonic-strategy reduction of prose-learning interference

One hundred and sixty college students read three fictitious biographical passages according to either imagery-mnemonic or no-strategy control instructions. In one mnemonic condition, subjects formed separate images involving each biographical name and its associated facts: in another mnemonic condition, the biographical name and its associated facts were integrated within a single composite image. Relative to an interference-control condition, integrated mnemonic subjects recalled more factual information, whereas separate mnemonic subjects did not. In addition, the recall of integrated mnemonic subjects was statistically no different from that of a noninterference control condition, whereas the recall of separate mnemonic subjects was lower. Both theoretical and educational implications of the results are discussed. The first author’s contribution to this work was supported by an Organized Research Grant from the Graduate School of Illinois State University. The second author’s contribution was supported by the National Institute of Education under Grant No. NIE-G-81-0009 to the Wisconsin Center for Education Research and was facilitated by a Romnes Faculty Fellowship from the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.     

Critical Ethnography/Poststructuralist Concerns: Foucault and the Play of Memory

Critical ethnography regards research as action taken in the interests of those who are rendered marginal by the dominant culture and often relies upon narrative knowledge as a way to speak to issues of power and equity. Following Foucault and the suspicion he brings to any knowledge, narrative or otherwise, being a means of extending not mitigating existing relations of power, how can/might critical ethnography respond to or thwart this concern? Drawing and reflecting upon two memoirs discovered by Foucault as exemplars of a kind of "weak knowledge" and in a more general sense, examining the transformative and disruptive role memory can play, illuminates one way of approaching such work.