Features of Islamic Children’s Books in English: A Case Study of Books Published in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to investigate the elements of Islamic children’s books that are written in English by focusing on books that are available in the Malaysian market and published in Malaysia. This study applies the content analysis method, by examining the selected books of their subject matter as well as the language. The results of the study reveal that Islamic books written for children in English are distinctive in terms of the content and language features.     

Clustering small-sized collections of short texts

The need to cluster small text corpora composed of a few hundreds of short texts rises in various applications; e.g., clustering top-retrieved documents based on their snippets. This clustering task is challenging due to the vocabulary mismatch between short texts and the insufficient corpus-based statistics (e.g., term co-occurrence statistics) due to the corpus size. We address this clustering challenge using a framework that utilizes a set of external knowledge resources that provide information about term relations. Specifically, we use information induced from the resources to estimate similarity between terms and produce term clusters. We also utilize the resources to expand the vocabulary used in the given corpus and thus enhance term clustering. We then project the texts in the corpus onto the term clusters to cluster the texts. We evaluate various instantiations of the proposed framework by varying the term clustering method used, the approach of projecting the texts onto the term clusters, and the way of applying external knowledge resources. Extensive empirical evaluation demonstrates the merits of our approach with respect to applying clustering algorithms directly on the text corpus, and using state-of-the-art co-clustering and topic modeling methods.     

Decolonising higher education curricula in South Africa: factoring in archives through public programming initiatives

South African higher education curricula are largely Eurocentric, to such an extent that indigenous knowledge is marginalised (Horsthemke in Transform High Educ 2(1)–9, 2017). Consequently, the decolonisation of university curricula has become a necessity. The nationwide ‘FeesMustFall’ student protests in 2015 and 2016 have underlined the need to address this matter urgently. Free quality education and the decolonisation of university curricula were among some of the students’ demands (Le Grange in SAJHE 30(2):1–12, 2016). Fundamentally, decolonising curricula involve a serious investigation of history and the strategising of future actions (Ngulube in Historia 47(2):563–582, 2002). Little is known about the potential role of archives in the process of decolonising higher education curricula in South Africa. Perhaps this can be attributed to a lack of awareness about archives and their significance in South Africa (Sulej in ESARBICA J 33:13–35, 2014). This paper explores the role of archives in the decolonisation of higher education curricula in South Africa. It appears that sub-Saharan scholars rarely consult archives (Onyancha et al. in ESARBICA J 32:67–77, 2013). Therefore, public programming is investigated as a means to get more members of the academic community to use archives as centres of critical inquiry. The relevant literature was consulted and discussed. Unique outreach or public programming initiatives will help the academic community to better understand the significance of archives in the decolonisation process.     

Spanish historic archives’ use of websites as a management transparency vehicle

Against the backdrop of Spain’s Transparency Act, this article discusses the presence or otherwise of a series of document types, proposed as management-related transparency indicators, on 61 (8 national and 53 provincial) historic archive websites. Although examples of good practice were identified, the information provided was found to be scant, in particular as regards lines of action, organisational objectives and yearly reports. The information most commonly provided on the websites included the collection classification chart, service use regulations and citizen charters. The inference drawn was that archives, so intently focused on their role in the application of the Act by the organisations they serve, neglect their own administrative obligations in respect of its provisions. The recommendation is that as government-funded and subsidised public service institutions, historic archives should exercise transparency by furnishing the information stipulated in the Act on their websites.     

“Seeking Information from the Lips of People”: oral history in the archives of Qatar and the Gulf region

The turn to oral history in Qatar and the Arabian (also known as Persian) Gulf is not a rejection of traditional archival authority as has been the case in other parts of the world. In the Gulf, oral history has been embraced out of a desire to fill the silences of the largely unwritten record attributable to previous low levels of literacy and strong oral traditions in the region. Today, oral history is seen as the best method to capture details about traditional ways of life during the pre-oil era. After discussing archival concerns about the evidentiary nature of oral histories, this paper explores how it has come to be a crucial documentation tool in the Gulf, adapted to the specific nation building and cultural heritage priorities of the region.     

在课堂教学中提升教师的专业素养

新的课程理念认为教师不仅仅作为一种职业存在,更多的是作为一种专业在教育领域中发挥着作用,教师应立足课堂,用情感丰富课堂的底蕴,用知识托起课堂的天空,把学生体验作为课堂的重点,让学生体会思考的快乐,努力提高自身专业素养.     

新一代学术交流生态系统的研究与构建——以北京大学为例

[目的/意义] 通过学术交流生态系统的研究与北京大学学术交流生态系统的初步构建,为高校与科研机构建设学术交流生态系统,推动学术交流和开放获取服务提供研究与实践参考经验。[方法/过程] 梳理学术交流概念、模式、功能与国内外研究发展情况,分析学术交流环境变化,指出开放获取、数据驱动研究范式、软件工具发展、社交媒体、教育教学新变革等因素驱动学术交流生态系统重构。介绍北京大学新一代学术交流生态系统的研究成果、架构设计、构建经验与服务效果,总结机构知识库、研究数据服务、开放出版、学者主页与研究支持服务等建设经验与效果。[结果/结论] 研究提出新一代学术交流生态系统,是以开放学术交流为目标,以学术资源数据汇集为基础,覆盖完整学术交流生命周期,提供研究准备、学术发现、研究与分析、写作、发布、传播与评价等学术交流全流程服务,并利用文献计量、数据挖掘、机器学习等新技术,为教学、科研、科研管理、学科评估等提供支持。总结研究成果和经验,为高校与科研机构建设学术交流生态系统提供有价值的研究与建设参考经验。推动学术交流发展,促进研究创新。     

体育学科各本科专业通用课程设置方案的研究

针对当今社会对体育人才需求状况与高校体育专业教育资源日趋紧张的矛盾,河北师范大学体育学院以＂创建体育学科各本科专业通用课程设置方案的研究＂为题申报了河北省教育科学＂十五＂规划课题,经课题组为期2年的研究,设计出由学校公共必修课、学科必修课、专业必修课、学科公共选修课和跨学科公共选修课5大课程模块组成的一个体育学科各本科专业都能够适用的培养方案。该培养方案通过学科必修课和学科公共选修课（各专业公共选修课）的设立,使学生的知识结构更加符合当今社会厚基础宽口径的要求并有效地扩大了学生自选学习内容的空间,教学班次的减少和班容量的更趋合理,使教学资源的配置更加合理并形成了择优任教的机制。     

《印象·刘三姐》中的大众文化生态性分析

<印象·刘三姐>应定位为具有生态性的大众文化.它与传统意义上的大众文化相比,有很多的创新,也有一定的不足.要在一种生态视域的大背景下认真思考<印象·刘三姐>的未来发展途径,一方面实现真、善、美、益、宜的优化配置,另一方面满足生态艺术性与产业化运营的中和统一,使得演出转化为真正的生态艺术.立于当代生态审美场域的潮头.     

高校图书馆学生用户信息素养培育的研究

分析了高校图书馆学生用户信息素养的现状及成因,提出了培育高校图书馆学生用户信息素养的思路,认为转变教育观念,提升学生的信息知识,让学生参加信息检索,创造良好的社会信息素养培育环境,建立一支高素质的"信息检索课"的教师队伍是提高大学生用户信息素养的重要措施.